Shop Locally on Black Friday

Whatever one thinks of Occupy Wall Street, everyone should follow their advice for Black Friday:  Shop locally.  Patronize mom-and-pop stores instead of chains and Big Boxes.

As a downtown resident of a small town — for the past seven-plus years — I’ve been hearing this message constantly.  It’s probably less obvious if you live in a large city or the suburbs.

The numbers I’ve been hearing over and over are:  when you buy from a locally-owned store, sixty cents of every dollar you spend stays in your community.  When you patronize a Big Box store — Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc. — only six cents of every dollar stays in your community.  For non-Big-Box chain stores, the figure is somewhere between those two extremes.

Now that the economy is in the tank, and a larger share of the nation’s wealth is concentrated in fewer hands than ever before, this message is more important than ever.  Buy local.

Remember — politicians won’t help you.  They’re part of the one percent.  You have to vote with your dollars whenever possible.  If you hate Wall Street, don’t keep your money in one of the big banks.  If you hate Wal-Mart, don’t shop there.

Happy Black Friday.