Saturday Short Subjects: Looking Ahead to The Day We All Shop Small®

Fast on the heels of Black Friday comes a quieter, gentler opportunity for shopping. Each year, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Small Business Saturday® celebrates small business in communities across America. Started by American Express in 2010, the number of participants has grown steadily over the years. It is estimated that $5.5B was spent by consumers who shopped on Small Business Saturday® in 2012. For this year’s campaign, AmEx has partnered with the USPS, Foursquare, and Twitter.

Why shop local? There are a number of very good reasons— from supporting business owners who are your neighbors and fellow taxpayers to building community. Perhaps the most compelling reason comes from an economic study conducted in Portland, Maine in 2011. Researchers found that every $100 spent in locally owned business contributed and additional $58 to the economy of Portland. In contrast, only $33 was returned to the local economy for each $100 spent in a chain store.

Here is a sampling of the local shops you’ll find if you visit my neighborhood on the edge of downtown New Haven — and I haven’t even mentioned the coffee shops and eateries: Taft Cosmetics, Katahdin Furniture, Knit New Haven, Gilden’s Jewelers, Foundry Music Company, Audubon Strings, DelMonico Hatter, Ferrucci Fine Men’s Clothiers, Luck & Levity Brewshop, Devil’s Gear Bike Shop, Elm City Market Co-op… get the idea?

So… next Saturday, get up from your chair. Take a walk around your neighborhood. Discover your local stores. Do some shopping. 

You’ll: 

• Support your community
• Get some exercise
• Lower your carbon footprint

And, I just bet you’ll meet some very nice people in the process.

Mark it on your calendar: November 30, 2013, Small Business Saturday® The Day We All Shop Small®.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Meatless Monday: Win-Win Holiday Shopping

I’ll never be hardcore enough to forgo holiday gifting. I’m not crafty enough nor do I have the time on my hands to make all my presents. 

I skipped the Black Friday (November 23) madness and started my holiday shopping by patronizing Small Business Saturday© (November 24), making a small contribution to the total of $5.5 billion U.S. consumers spent with independent merchants on that day.   

Alas, that was not enough, and, at this late hour, I still have more shopping to do.

I have one more trick up my sleeve — the gift of favorite foods. I have found several sites which may be of help. LocalHarvest, located in Santa Cruz, CA, was founded in 1998 by activist and software engineer Guillermo Payet. Here you can locate produce and other agricultural items (think honey, soaps, and wool products) in your area AND shop online for items not available locally or for items you may want to send as gifts. I described this site in great detail in a post dated last December. 

There is no middle man. Each item you order directly benefits small farmers who have products to ship and sell every day of the year. A gift purchased from a small farmer is revenue which provides benefits directly to the community in which the farmer lives.  

Another useful guide for those living in southern New England is FarmFresh, an online farm guide which will help you locate fresh produce and farm stands by zip code. In most cases you will have to visit the farm market or stand to make your purchase. 

At the high end of the gifting scale is Slow Food USA’s US Ark of Taste, “a catalog of over 200  delicious foods in danger of extinction.” Here you can discover products ranging from Traditional Sea Salt from Hawaii to American Rye Whiskey. It’s fun to browse these pages even if you can’t afford to purchase them.

Remember, a gift of a favorite food is a gift which will not be wasted. A purchase from these sources is a win all around. 

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal  health and the health of our planet.”