Small Business Saturday

So if you caught my Thanksgiving blog, than you know I'm becoming a little anti Black Friday. I just feel like all those big retailers who decided to open Thanksgiving night for 'Black Friday' are destroying what used to be a nice holiday that you just spent with family - one of the few not based around gifts or other material goods. Just good food and company. Having said that, though, I'm ashamed to say that I ended up taking part in the night shopping.

It was Eric's fault. He saw something in the Target ad (a vacuum cleaner) that he wanted. His parents were long gone and we were surprisingly still wide awake after the long day, so I obliged him and we went to Target. And Macy's, since it's across the parking lot (at Glendale Town Center). We walked out of Target with a vacuum cleaner and Macy's was all about stuff for him, believe it or not. Mostly for 'now' but I talked him into letting me wrap one thing for the tree. He's just so hard to shop for...

But back to the blog at hand... Today is Small Business Saturday! I've come to love this day... way more than Black Friday. I'm lucky enough to have some very cool local small shops that I like to frequent on a regular basis, anyway, and today just gives me a reason to hit them all again. And I love seeing them all busy! And while some more gifts were picked up, most of it was for me. Just because.

Now if you don't know what Small Business Saturday is, where have you been??? American Express has be promoting and sponsoring this day for years, now... and I think it's an awesome idea. So many people don't realize what they can find out there is they look beyond the big box retailers. Even cooler is often these small, local shops also carry locally made stuff that is only sold on a small scale locally. And there are some cool local makers out there. This I've learned more recently, thanks to Eric's job.

So you still have time. Get out there and shop local today. You might just find a new favorite store.