Today is Small Business Saturday - Remember to Shop Small and Local!

Small Business Saturday is a counterpart to black Friday and Cyber Monday, which feature national chains, "big box" and e-commerce stores. By contrast, Small Business Saturday encourages holiday shoppers to patronize "mainstreet" shopping districts, "mom and pop" shops, the small and local independents businesses that are the fabric of any community...like Wyandotte. Small Business Saturday was started by American Express in 2010.

It was such a fantastic way to introduce the importance of shopping local to the masses. There is even a Twitter hashtag #SmallBusinessSaturday that continues to be used to promote small businesses on any and all Saturdays -- NOT just the Saturday after Black Friday. Willow Tree and Chelsea are proud to have been on board with this great National campaign since the first year and to be leaders in the "Shop Local" philosophy and movement in our community. 

Plaid Friday - It's an "Indie" Thing!

For about 5 or 6 years now, there has been a growing backlash against a well-known shopping day called Black Friday. It’s touted as the “first official day” of Christmas shopping and has always been held the day after Thanksgiving....today.

This day has become a frenzied “free-for-all”. Massive crowds of early-bird shoppers get up before the sun and wait in long lines to storm the doors to get in for advertised specials. They fight each other for items. They yell and scream at one another. They are demanding and hostile toward the unfortunate employees that had to be in so early. And sadly, the crazy tradition keeps getting earlier and earlier with some stores opening up on Thanksgiving! We don’t like it and won’t do it. We value our staff far too much. We also don't like to think that those behaviors are a good way to start what is supposed to be a giving season.

We actually prefer our own version of that 1^st Official Shopping Day and call it Plaid Friday. It’s the opposite of Black Friday. It’s nifty, fun, stress-free, low key and friendly. It’s honest and personal. We offer a civilized and small town alternative to the madness. We serve refreshments. We listen to great music. We have specials...honest ones at that.

According to the founder of the movement, “From the beginning, the event has framed itself as the antithesis of the post-Thanksgiving shopping madness.” Plaid Friday is a day where people can sleep in a bit, get up and enjoy a cup of coffee, get brunch out -- and then discover all the unique and wonderful stuff that’s going on in their own neighborhood shops. Coffee houses, restaurants and pubs participate right along with local retailers, too. It's fantastic!

It’s a grassroots thing, but we love it and are happy to have adopted it in 2009!