10 reasons to shop locally this holiday
- Your dollars spent at Magic Beans and other local businesses have three times as much impact on your community as dollars spent at national chains. When you shop local, you simultaneously create jobs, fund more city services through sales tax, invest in neighborhood improvement and promote community development.
- Did you know that small businesses are the largest employer nationally? We are very proud of the job opportunities we have been able to create in the Boston area.
- It’s small businesses that give communities their unique feel. We feel a real responsibility to make sure we’re enhancing the flavor of our neighborhoods.
- With such high accountability to our communities, many local shops have a big focus on customer service and a short pipeline to the business owner when problems do arise.
- Local shops don’t adhere to any national merchandising plans. We carefully pick the products that will appeal to the interests and needs of our customers. We want to get to know you and to bring you the things you want.
- Not only is it our goal to help sustain the community, but it’s also our mission to make it thrive. Local businesses donate to community causes at more than twice the rate of national chains.
- Local shop owners are passionate about their wares, and more often than not, we’re consumers of the things we sell. Here at Magic Beans, we’re using our products with our own kids, so you know our commitment to quality and safety is rock solid.
- Individual items might be less expensive at big-box stores or online outlets, but you shop smarter when you take advantage of the curated selection and expert advice you’ll find in a local store. If you want to buy a gift for less than $20, you’ll find aisles and aisles of them at a big box store. But you’ll find hundreds of options here, too, and we’ll help you choose the right one – the one your kids will come back to and play with again and again – and then we’ll even gift wrap it for free.
- Local businesses need fewer resources and less energy to run their operations. When you shop locally you are encouraging environmental conservation.
- Most of the local merchants I talk to are sincerely worried about the future. Economic woes, rising expenses and increased competition have made business tough and unpredictable. Imagine what your neighborhood would look like if all the locally owned stores were gone, replaced by a litany of competing pharmacies, cell phone stores and banks. It could happen. But only if we let it.
Here’s one more reason:
American Express is sponsoring Small Business Saturday this coming Saturday November 27th. If you are an American Express cardmember, you can enroll to get a $25 credit on your next statement when you shop with your American Express card at a participating local business on Saturday.
This is an amazing initiative on the part of American Express. And since this promotion was announced, the Small Business Saturday page on Facebook has had over 750,000 people who “like” it. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. So go, enroll, and shop with us this weekend. You’ll feel great about supporting a local merchant and you’ll also get $25 back.
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