What began in 2010 as Small Business Saturday has quickly become a nationwide tradition greatly anticipated by shopper and business owner alike. Small Business Saturday provides an opportunity not only for small businesses to be seen above the blur of Black Friday and other conventional holiday shopping extravaganzas, nor does it stop at finding a unique gift. What's more, Small Business Saturday helps to raise awareness regarding the importance of shopping local for communities at large. One advocate for shopping small provides ten reasons why supporting local businesses is important and can even act as a cure for some of the problems we see and experience in our own communities.
The relationships amongst people that are developed through shopping small, and the sense of community that follows is a source of health and vibrancy in living often lost to society today. Shopping small places, or rather re-places, value on foundational people within our communities—people like farmers, grocers, artists, photographers, and the like. People who devote their lives to passionately perfecting one trade or craft, but simply can't compete with corporate kingdoms.
Choose this year to invest a little bit back into where you call home, knowing that even more than the exchange of product and monetary means, the value really lies in where you invest your time and your heart. So let that heart of yours be moved to see the small businesses that exist around you, to value the people that work hard to keep them running, and to support the preservation of community in its rawest form—people living with people.
-The Wander Trees