Online, local merchants woo shoppers

Robyn Lydick

November 29th 2009

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are upon us as we careen from Thanksgiving into the tinsel, green-boughed and dreidel populated world of the December holidays.

Last year, Jdimytai Damour, 34, a Walmart greeter was crushed to death by Black Friday crowds in Long Island, N.Y., that broke down locked doors and rushed into the store.

Despite this, the advertising term door buster is still in play.

On Black-Friday.net, readers can get the scoop on major sales with retailers, including copies of sale fliers, and coupons to use with ordering online.

Cybermonday.net trumpets its value site as “just like Black Friday , except you can do your holiday shopping at work.”

Both have user-submitted deals.

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Then there is a movement to stop Black Friday in its standing in line tracks and get those shoppers, and their dollars into local tills.

The Mile High Business Alliance is also focusing on mom-and-pop stores with a buy local push. The alliance said that Coloradans spent $12.7 billion during the holidays. The group hopes to move part of that money into a local economy.

“Where we spend money really does matter,” said Mickki Langston, director of Mile High Business Alliance. “The $100 spent at Target or the mall is different from $100 spent at Tattered Cover.”

That $100 will circulate at least three times in the local economy, Langston said. Local businesses employ local people, tend to shop other local businesses and pay taxes companies based elsewhere might not pay.

“Local businesses help us build a sustainable, resilient local economy,” Langston said.

Supporting a small business in town is not necessarily saying no to the big box world.

The alliance is saying buy local first.

“Buying local first isn’t anti-big business or anti-somewhere else,” Langston said. “Its about having what your community needs, and sustaining the people and resources on the planet.”