When the holidays approach, the Chamber turns its thoughts to small businesses and shopping local. Once again, the Chamber is promoting both of these during the holiday season.
We are excited that tomorrow night we will be part of the proclamation recognition of Small Business Saturday at the Manhattan City Commission meeting. The meeting is at 6 p.m. Riley County will have a similar proclamation that will be presented on Monday, Nov. 21 at 9:30 a.m. The annual event will once again be the Saturday after Thanksgiving (Nov. 26).
The reason for shopping small is simple. The U.S. Small Business Association estimates that small businesses create nearly two-thirds of all jobs and that 68 cents of every dollar spent at a small business stays in the community.
Manhattan is a unique community that relies on small, locally owned businesses for our economic prosperity. While it is certainly more convenient to shop from home, the long-term consequences of internet purchases are detrimental to our city's quality of life. Please think about your purchases for this year's holiday season and how you can support local merchants.
And while we annually use the holiday as the opportunity to focus on this issue, we would also encourage you to think about shopping small and shopping local year around. Every dollar you divert back to local vendors creates a better standard of living for all us.