As our American readers pull themselves out of the turkey-and-stuffing induced coma that is the post-Thanksgiving Dinner hibernation, the word trending high amongst progressive circles is “waste”. More succinctly, how not to waste. Numerous blogs offer suggestions on making the most of food scraps, preventative shopping methods (i.e. not over-buying groceries) and food rescue mission that will actually come to your residence, retrieve your leftovers and redistribute them to individuals and groups in need. But the waste we’ll cover today pertains to consumption. Specifically holiday shopping. Tethered to the back of every Thanksgiving is the lure of the highly anticipated, extremely dubious, “Black Friday”.

Black Friday which originated in Philadelphia in the late 1960’s, is traditionally the Friday that follows Thanksgiving. It marks the beginning of Christmas shopping season and is theoretically the time when retailers begin turning a profit and are “in the black”. While many big-box and chain stores tend to roll out the biggest discounts of the year, yet only from the hours of midnight to noon, the surrounding panic and fever-pitch energy is enough to push customers wallets to rip open and shell out hard earned cash (or more frequently these days: credit) on items that are not exactly vital. An inspiring antidote to overspending, wasteful shopping and pouring money back into these big box retailers is an initiative, called Small Business Saturday.

“Small Business Saturday® is
 a day dedicated to supporting small businesses
 on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year, The site states.

“On November 26, we're asking millions of people to Shop Small at their favorite local stores and help fuel the economy. When we all shop small, it will be huge.”

Small Business Saturday was created, oddly enough; by American Express as a way encourage holiday shoppers to patronize brick-and-mortar businesses that are small and local. Promoted thru social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, SBS has gained a rather devoted following of over 2 Million "likes" on Facebook, resulting in renewed interest in brands and shops otherwise overlooked in the holiday rush and a replenishing, community building after effect of careful, thoughtful, tempered shopping.

So as the seasons greetings rain down around us, remember this, staying close to home was always a part of the plan.


Links to consider:

http://smallbusinesssaturday.com/

http://www.facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday