Shopping Small Business: This Saturday, November 26th

I've written a few posts about this over the years:

-- "Shopping Main Street: Small Business Saturday," 2011
-- "Saturday November 24th, Small Business Saturday," 2012
-- "Small Business Saturday, November 29th, 2014 and shopping locally," 2014
-- "Shopping local during the holidays: Small Business Saturday and beyond," 2015
-- "President Obama and his daughters shop on Small Business Saturday," 2015

and I don't feel the need to write another post saying the same things.  Click on one randomly if you so choose.


Retailers seem to believe that the holiday shopping season will be fruitful ("National Retail Federation Forecasts Holiday Sales to Increase 3.6%, NRF press release; "Retailers Holiday Sales Outlook: Not So Horrible This Year," Investors Business Daily; "Department Stores Change Tactics as They Lose Ground to Screens," Bloomberg).

Like how consumer sentiment (called "consumer confidence" by economists) shifted after the election--Republicans who had felt the economy was bad changed their tune once Donald Trump won the election and for Democrats is was reversed--I am not particularly positive.

Hopefully I am wrong.

Regardless, rather than buying stuff that will end up in landfills, why not buy more meaningful gifts, and from independent retailers, for whom the sale means a lot more and has more economic impact locally.