Saturday, November 30, 2013

Sustainable Saturday - Small Business Saturday

Black Friday, the huge shopping day in the United States, is over.

Black Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday in our country, belongs to the big retailers here in the States - Wal-Mart, Target, Macy's, Kohl's, Bed, Bath and Beyond/Christmas Tree Shop, plus online retailers such as Amazon.com.  Sales start earlier and earlier each year.  Online, they now start days before.

You can get some real bargains (or some bargains that only seem like great bargains), and sometimes the bargain hunting gets violent.

In contrast - Saturday is Small Business Saturday.  It only dates from 2010 but is gaining in popularity.  Why not spend some of that Black Friday money supporting local businesses?

Ironically, Small Business Saturday was started by a large company, American Express.

Last year, we had a fun time shopping at the "Binghamton North Pole", including Fresh Start Market, Country Additions Gift Shop and got several Christmas gifts at local businesses. At Country Additions we found some gifts made in the United States, including some from right here in New York State.

This year, due to circumstances, we won't have much time to participate but still hope to make it to Binghamton's locavore store, Old Barn Hollow tomorrow, and other local businesses in the coming weeks.  (Full disclosure, I also do shopping on Black Friday.  And, in fact, I had a very nice experience with Amazon Customer Service - I will share more next week.)

If you celebrate Christmas, where will you do your holiday shopping?  Or, will your gifts be homemade?

2 comments:

  1. I do most of my shopping online because my daughters put their wish lists there. I think the Black Friday custom has gotten out of hand.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My husband and I don't celebrate Christmas. He says the festival time brings back too many memories, which make him sad. We're both estranged from our children and grandchildren, and celebrating loses it's point without a family to share with.

    ReplyDelete

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