When was the last time you had a personal conversation with the owner of Amazon? What about Target? Oh…you’ve never had a personal conversation with them? Okay, that’s fine. ![]() ![]() When you go into a small business, there is a pretty strong chance that the person behind the counter is the owner. These stories I have of meeting the local people are some of my favorites. I want to buy the socks knit by the old woman in Latvia that doesn’t use set sizes and has to measure the socks with a ruler before giving them to you to make sure they’ll actually fit, but it’s okay because she has so much pride in her work and looks like she might cry because you decided to buy from her instead of the people in the next stall that just order theirs from a factory. I want to buy homemade chocolates from the mother-daughter duo in the residential area of Malmo, Sweden. I want to meet the guy painting old cutting boards in the alleyway of Paris. I like buying souvenirs just like anyone else, but I don’t want to buy them from the massive stores selling things that were actually made in China and not the place I’m visiting. Whenever I travel to somewhere new, I seek out these smaller businesses. How does this have anything to do with travel?” I didn’t come here to get a lesson in economics. When you spend $100 at a nonlocal business, a mere $42 stays in the community…that’s a pretty drastic jump. ![]() There was a Civic Economics Study that came out a few years ago that showed by spending $100 at a local business, $68 will stay in the community and go towards things like local schools, the wages of the people that work in that business and actually live there, and supporting the first responders that work to keep your community safe every single day. Don’t let that deter you!!! This was actually a good thing done by a credit card company for once! American Express wanted to help the small business owners they worked with get more exposure, and as the “holiday” became more popular by getting support from influential people like President Obama, they even started offering free ads for small businesses to utilize online.īut why does it matter? Why should you be shopping at these smaller businesses, that may have higher prices, where you also need to potentially deal with annoying crowds when you could just order from Amazon and have your item in a day or two? Like Black Friday, it seems like Small Business Saturday has been around forever, but somehow it is less than a decade old! Small Business Saturday kicked off in 2010 by the American Express credit card company. Happy Black Wednesday, everyone! I’m sure a lot of you are mentally and physically preparing for the craziness that is Black Friday, but I am personally preparing for my favorite shopping day of the year: Small Business Saturday.
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