Supporting Local: Why Shopping Small Matters More This Holiday Season

(ok, but really all year)

Perhaps you hear about shopping small and shopping local and you’re not really sure why that’s important….

Facts:

• It’s really really hard to be a small business. It’s kind of an uphill battle sometimes. But we do it because we love it and we think it's important.

• For every dollar you spend locally a significant portion (over ⅔)  is reinvested back into the community (only 1/10 stays local at a big box store)

• Believe it or not, local businesses put three times as much money back into their local economies as compared to “big box” or chain retailers (Forbes).

Do you like the feel of having small businesses in your town? Small businesses contribute to the feel and character of a town. They are centers of warmth and creativity.

Local businesses often have a smaller carbon footprint. We source as local as we can, which reduces transportation emissions. We aren’t overstocking like big box retailer or dumping returns into the landfill.

While big box stores might lure you with their constant sales, and huge marketing budgets… you often buy much more than you need…dollar bin items that end up in the trash or a shirt in the back of your closet that still has a tag on it because it was only $5.

Despite claims that big box retailers help local economies thrive, that’s not entirely true. While they can contribute to the tax base, often they are utilizing a lot of local resources, not putting profits back into the local economy, and much more. Big national and international retailers … most don’t have the best ethical track record (think low cost goods produced cheaply and in poor working conditions: see previous post for more information).

We think that you should buy less this holiday season, but buy better. 

Where are we purchasing and gifting from this season?:

• Second hand goods (check things like ebay, 143 exchange, Ocean Village Books, Hunt & Trade)

• Here (obviously)- check out the Holiday Lookbook

• Experiences- gift cards to local restaurants, movie theater tickets for the kids, Pottery Playce dates, concert or theater tickets, a class at Bind Yoga Collective, or the Hen House

• Rock Paper Scissors Toy store (yes, I have a running list of a few new goodies already) and the Boston Brick Co for all things Lego.

• Lots of local goodies abound at The Wicked Women Maker’s Market on November 29th or  the Merry Market on December 14th

• Our favorite local book stores: Storybook Cove, Buttonwood Books and Toys, Book Love in Plymouth

• We generally get a big pile of Slacktide Gift Cards for all the little Thank Yous in our lives.

• Homemade Gifts. Depends how motivated we’re feeling!

• For the person who has everything? A donation in their honor to an organization aligned with them.

• Frame some family photos or art from the Frame Center

• I won’t say no to anything from Bario Neal or some R&R at Alluna

• Inclusion Records for all our music lovers, and Press for delicious things next door

• Gifts from local kids or non profits selling stuff: a lot of people in my life get wreaths from the GSP of New England annual wreath sale.

Want to be ‘extra?’ Pay with cash so your small businesses get even more of your dollar, and share near and wide.