Did you know that Pink Friday is Friday, November 22, 2024? Pink Friday is a shop small and shop local event. Pink Friday was started in 2020 by Boutique Hub, and it has really caught on. Over 14,000 small businesses are participating this year from all across Canada and the United States. It is an initiative to support shopping local, shopping small business and shopping locally owned. It is positioned the week before Black Friday. Since Black Friday is such a busy day, Pink Friday offers customers the opportunity to get the deals one week ahead, spreading the time out, so shoppers don’t feel as rushed to get everything done in one day. It is also a time to spend some time with local businesses and see what they have to offer. In addition to special deals, many small businesses use the opportunity to turn the day into a shopping event, often extending hospitality to their customers with food, snacks and beverages. Pink Friday is a day to come out and support all small businesses even if they are not participating in Pink Friday. Every small business can participate, and it’s free. The slogan of Pink Friday is “Support Small First”. The premise behind it is that shopping small should happen first.
Some people may wonder, “What’s the big deal about supporting small locally owned business when I can just go to the box store or chain”. In Canada, small business makes up a whopping 98.2 per cent of all businesses. Small business is the backbone of our country. According to Statistics Canada, small businesses are responsible for 53 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product, recovering from a drop down to 35 per cent during COVID. Most of the box stores and chains are foreign-owned, meaning that the profits leave Canada, and local money is sucked out of the local community. A study from Yale University and the University of Bristol has shown that small businesses make their local communities more resilient during times of recession. In Canada, small businesses have accounted for half of the job gains. The largest job creators are small business startups.
Locally owned businesses are the backbone of our communities. When you choose to eat in a locally owned restaurant, for example, 80 per cent of the money remains in your local community verses 20 per cent with a chain. Every dollar you spend locally can have three times the economic impact on your community when you spend it at locally-owned businesses. When you spend at a big box retailer, even if it is locally situated, 86 per cent of the money you spend leaves your community. When people choose to shop locally they are choosing in effect to support and prosper their community.
When you give your hard-earned dollars to a locally owned business it starts a series of chain reactions, such as jobs for their staff, donations to community and charity events, and support to sports teams, hospitals, and other local businesses. It is a never-ending circle of community-supporting-community. Local small business tends to hire local accountants, lawyers, graphic designers, newspapers, suppliers, etc. while the big box stores use people from their corporate head office in large metropolitan cities. It is the local businesses and citizens of the past that have built our communities, and it continues to be the local businesses that support and build their communities in the present.
Shopping locally owned is an opportunity to be part of a grassroots movement that gives you the power to inject your local community with increased vitality and strength. It is a chance to say thank you to the businesses that have donated money for sports teams, arenas, churches, hospitals, and a host of community events. They have supplied endless door prizes, silent auction items, sponsorships, and cash donations. Shopping locally creates awareness about the importance of neighbourhood communities that need to be supported to continue with their very important role. So, as you head out to do your holiday shopping, know that your local small businesses need to be supported so that they will be there for you and future generations, creating jobs, giving back to their communities, and supporting the local and Canadian economy. It really is a big deal to shop small!
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