Do you shop on Black Friday?

Are you one of the hardy shoppers that springs into action to get the best deals the day after Thanksgiving? Or even the night of Thanksgiving?  I never was.  I dislike crowds and like to shop when it feels leisurely and not stressful.  But now with our new life of running a small business I am thrown into the very thing I tried to avoid!!  Its a paradox alright.  My sisters and I used to have a Christmas shopping tradition when we lived in the small suburban town of Winchester, Mass.  We would shop on Christmas Eve day and visit all the cute shops in downtown Winchester buying gifts for one another and other family members.  Then we would have a bite to eat in one of the small eateries in the town to cap it off.  We all enjoyed that for the years that it lasted before geography separated us. We were shopping local, in the cute little town we grew up in.  "Shopping local" has become a catch phrase these days, and for good reason.  Small businesses need shoppers to survive, and if we don't the world will be filled with only the Walmarts and Targets. 
I managed to get a small feast prepared for our small Thanksgiving.   
(Though not much else in the way of table decor as I was working 
in the store the day before Thanksgiving until 5 pm.) 
We had a nice quiet dinner and then went off to the movies to 
see Captain Phillips, the true life thriller of the Somali pirates taking over
 an American tanker. The movie stars Tom Hanks.
The funny thing about Captain Phillips, is that he also grew up
in my small town of Winchester and was a friend of mine.
His nickname was "Jungle". Hah!
While he was going to the Mass Maritime Academy he would
go out to sea for weeks at a time, and then come home for a few weeks off.
I would go pick him up in black VW or he would swing by
my house and pick me up in Steve's vintage fleetwood Cadillac.
It was always a good time hanging out with him!
What a nice guy~he was a funny guy too, but they never
showed him telling jokes or doing funny stuff in the movie.
(Good movie, by the way.)
But I digress....back to the point of the blog post.
While I never shopped Black Friday, I did shop local.
Which brings me to this shameless pitch:
We will be behind the counters for this weekend of
Black Friday and Small Business Saturday at
150 Main Street Reading Mass.
50% off sales?! You won't see that at small businesses.
We don't price our things with that much meat on the bone
like they do at the big box stores.
We have to start our with competitive pricing to begin 
with, so when we have sales the discounts are smaller
but the value is real.
Just know that whatever small business you shop at
you will be making a difference. 
And isn't that a nice feeling?

Photobucket

No comments:

Post a Comment