Support those who support us

Local columnist

While I’m the kind of person for whom shopping ranks only slightly above shoving bamboo slivers under my fingernails, I am well aware that the biggest shopping season of the year begins almost the moment the last dollop of whipped cream is licked off of our dessert plates today.

If you’re among those gearing up for some serious post-turkey transactions, I’d like to make a case for a new concept — one to replace Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. I call it Shop Local Every Day. It even has a winter-themed acronym: SLED.

linkWhen we SLED (see how much fun that sounds?), we are supporting the merchants who buy yearbook ads, sponsor cheerleaders and sports teams, purchase animals at the junior livestock sales, and fork over funds to every local cause that comes along. Why do they do it, year after year? Because it is their community, too.

The business owners (including our wonderful local artists and crafters) who benefit when we SLED are taxpayers and property owners. They are our friends and our neighbors, the ones who show up to bid ludicrous amounts on pies at bake sales, the ones whose names appear in theater programs and on the backs of soccer team shirts.

They are members of the Chamber of Commerce, believers in MainStreet, and backbones of our communities.

Let’s make an early New Year’s resolution: Let’s SLED.

Betty Williamson can’t skate, but she tries hard to SLED. You may reach her at [email protected].