Anthony Hardwick is my Thanksgiving hero. He’s the guy who started the online petition at Change.org urging his employer to respect the holiday and not open at midnight on Thanksgiving. He suggests that even a 5 AM is plenty early enough for those who believe that the best part of the Thanksgiving holiday is snatching up bargains like five dollar Barbie dolls.
186,000 people have signed his petition so far.
Then again this was a pretty easy call for me. You won’t catch me anywhere near a retail store on Black Friday, a pub or restaurant maybe but never a store.
Usually I’d also include Saturday in this category but this year I'll make an exception, but not for the major retailers. I’ll likely visit a small business. American Express is running a nationwide promotion urging shoppers to support small business on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The credit card company is encouraging consumers to shop small businesses on Saturday, November 26th and they are even providing free marketing tools for these businesses to compliment their nationwide ad campaign. That’s the kind of effort I can get behind.
I’ve already resolved to make an extra effort this holiday season to support my fellow small businesses. Today for example, following the recommendation of HowChow, I visited the Caspian Market in Ellicott City to pick up some pistachio nougat to take as a gift for Thanksgiving dinner. After that I stopped at the Wine Bin and bought a bottle of Sloop Betty, the only premium vodka that is distilled right here in Maryland
Its really not that hard to do and make a world of difference to our local economy.
