This Friday marks the official start of the holiday shopping season. Black Friday will obviously see hoards of shoppers shoving each other down in aisle 5 in order to secure their spot in line with a 120" television for $25. If we have anything to say about it, it's something along the lines of, “Black Friday, boo. Small Business Saturday, yay! Buy local.”

We adore our local businesses and entrepreneurs, and we’ve always known that tasty karma is spread by patronizing these fine establishments...but the folks at Local First Utah have actually quantified that good feeling. As you sip your spiked egg nog, consider this: shifting just 10% of our yearly spending to local business will keep 1.3 billion in our economy. Kind of a big deal. Shift Your Spending Week will run Friday, November 29th thru Friday, December 6th, and it's a great way for you to kill two local birds with one local stone. Do your part to keep our economy healthy, and earn your place with friends and loved ones as the one that finds perfect, thoughtfully-purchased gifts from locally-owned businesses.

Before you head out this Friday to wage Yuletide war, check out Local First Utah’s directory of participating, locally-owned businesses. You can also wise up and check our specially-made, locally-focused, COLLECTIVELY-cool gift guide, wherein each and every one of us offers up a great local spot to find something delicious for the lady/fella/kid/pal/lover/boss/stranger in your life. Buy local.

Local First Utah | Shift Your Spending Directory | cityhomeCOLLECTIVE Gift Guide