Business, state leaders celebrate ‘Buy Colorado Day’ holiday

STATE HOLIDAY

State Sen. James Coleman, Senate president, is pictured here at the Colorado state Capitol in Denver in January 2025. PHOTO BY RJ SANGOSTI — THE DENVER POST

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By Bizwest

bizwest@medianewsgroup.com

State lawmakers declared Monday that March 3 will now be a new state holiday dubbed Buy Colorado Day.

The new holiday, as designated by Senate Joint Resolution 8, falls on 303 Day (the third day of the third month of the year), which evokes Colorado pride with a reference to its 303 area code and aims to celebrate and promote Colorado’s small businesses, brands, stores and food and beverage makers through limited-time-only sales and promotion, marketing and social media campaigns, events, parties and networking opportunities. The inaugural Buy Colorado Day will be held next March.

“There is something special in the Rocky Mountain water here,” said Ricardo Baca, founder of marketing firm Grasslands Ltd. and one of Buy Colorado Day’s lead organizers. “… We build businesses that change the world.”

The Centennial State, which is “is home to nearly 700,000 small businesses that employ more than 1.2 million people,” is the birthplace of products now recognized the whole world over, including Crocs, the snap-button Western shirt, Jolly Ranchers, Coors Banquet Beer, the Denver Boot, the Polar Bottle, the Denver omelet, the cowboy hat, the Chipotle burrito, outdoor Christmas lights, Celestial Seasonings teas, the root beer float, OtterBox, the slopper, PopSockets, and even the cheeseburger,” the resolution reads.

Colorado’s eateries and watering holes also get a special shout out in the resolution, which declares that the “state’s more than 13,000 restaurants and taverns, 69% of which are independently owned and operated, generate more than $20 billion in economic activity and employ 11% of the state’s labor force.”

Speaking to the media from the steps of the Colorado Capitol, Colorado Senate President James Coleman, D-Denver, said that the state’s “businesses build communities,” and “contribute foundational revenues that we put to work improving the wellbeing of Colorado’s working families.”