One of the biggest shopping days of the year has been built up by large corporations as "Black Friday" which happens on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving each year.  Then with the surge of online shopping, "Cyber Monday" was created as the biggest online shopping day which is the Monday after Thanksgiving annually.  Now, in a movement to help support local businesses, we encourage you to shop local on "Small Business Saturday" in support of the second year for this nationwide movement.

During the holiday season, many people are immersed with advertisements, sales, coupons, and more from national retail chain stores and forget about the local businesses that serve the community.  By shopping at local stores, you help the local economy in many ways and a lot of these local shops are family owned and operated.

While shopping at local stores should be done regularly throughout the year, we encourage you to buy at least one thing from a locally owned and operated store during Small Business Saturday.  If everyone buys at least one item from these local shops, it will help these local retailers and the local economy immensely.  You can use our business directory to find local Tampa shops like Urban Body Clothing or head to areas of Tampa that have a lot of local shops like Ybor City or Hyde Park.  Another idea is to start at one of Tampa's farmers markets as they happen on every Saturday and have lots of local businesses.

The Small Business Saturday is a nationwide movement to encourage everyone to shop at a local store the Saturday after Thanksgiving, with 2011 being Saturday, November 26.  To help encourage people to "Shop Small" on Small Business Saturday, American Express will offer cardholders a $25 statement credit with a purchase of $25 or more at a local retail store on Small Business Saturday.  Find complete details of this offer at the Small Business Saturday website - www.smallbusinesssaturday.com/.

Let's show that Tampa supports small businesses as we all buy at least one thing from a Tampa small business on Small Business Saturday.  We are all going to be shopping for the holidays anyways, so let's support local businesses and the local economy by shopping at local Tampa businesses! 

"One small purchase can make a big difference so pledge to Shop Small on Small Business Saturday!"

Make your pledge today with our 813area Local Business Pledge and support your local economy!