NATCHEZ — A discussion on Small Business Saturday led to a mention of the city of Natchez on Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

MSNBC reported that a record $17.8 billion in sales were made Saturday at local, independently owned businesses throughout the nation.

J.J. Ramberg, host of “Your Business,” mentioned Natchez in the same breath with Wisconsin and Cincinnati as a revived downtown.

“And what we’ve found there is in some downtowns — Beloit, Wisconsin; Cincinnati — they have revived — Natchez, Mississippi,” Ramberg said. “That’s because there is one person or one organization, a Main Street organization, that is taking this on as a cause, gotten all the retailers to work together, and they have events there so that people actually come downtown.”

Aimee Guido, communications manager with Natchez Inc., said Natchez Inc. applied to be designated as a small business site through American Express approximately three years ago. She said the designation came with free graphics, banners and bags with wording that thanks patrons for shopping local, small businesses.

“It’s little things like that that help small business people know there are things out there to help,” Guido said. “It helps them see there are resources that don’t cost them anything.”

Guido said that there also was a national segment featuring small businesses along Main Street approximately four years ago, and she speculated that either the small business designation or the previous segment might have led to the on-air mention of Natchez during Monday’s “Morning Joe.”