EDITORIAL: Putting the local back in ‘Shop local’
Black Friday. Cyber Monday. The discount shopping days imported from south of the border keep rolling in — and expanding, with some large stores stretching them out before and after the official days.
And our homegrown day of purported sales bonanzas, Boxing Day — now lengthened into a week — is coming around again soon.
Most of the media coverage of these events, however, focuses on lineups and mad rushes in the aisles of the large chain stores — the Walmarts, Future Shops and the like.
After all, they’re the operations that can most easily source loss leaders to entice further buying. Smaller shops try to participate but are often forced to sell merchandise at (for them) ruinous prices, just to keep customers.
Those amazing prices at the big places can be a false economy for consumers, if they consider the quality of their communities to be of value to them. Thriving small local stores are a plus for our neighbourhoods in too many ways to list in this space. They deserve our support, not out of charity but for the benefit of us all.
Perhaps we need a special day — or several days — with a catchy name to promote shopping locally.
About this article: