There is talk of shortages of Christmas gifts this year because of backed up docks.

 

Think outside the box!  There are no shipping lanes or docks when you shop locally for holiday gifts. In fact, in most instances, you don’t even need to leave home.

 

And I’m not talking about Amazon.

 

I’m talking about supporting your local artists, authors, and other providers of the items you’re in need of.

 

Don’t know how to find them?

 

Start on Facebook or your favorite search engine.

 

Type in, for example, “Tacoma authors,” “Tacoma artists,” “Tacoma WA local body care products,” or whatever else you’re looking for. ”

 

Make shopping local a habit

 

Your local economy will improve.

 

There are no shipping costs (or they’re minimal if you shop online).

 

Best of all, you can feel good about being an area booster.  You’ll discover local Creatives you may never otherwise have heard of, since they rarely have advertising budgets large enough to help them compete against Big Box stores via mass media.

 

If you want to bring corporations down a peg (or three or four or a dozen more) so they aren’t owning you and everyone else they do business with, this is one thing you can do to break away from them.

 

Buy direct locally and cut out the middleman.  Save money.  Feel better about your purchases. And when you find a local provider who knocks your socks off, don’t keep it to yourself. Let others know so they can spend their money with them, too.  Local business owners love and need word of mouth!!!

 

This is a good year to let the powers that be know that you can find what you need locally.  Maybe that will be a huge wake-up call to them and instill some humility. Yeah, I know, that’s hard to imagine, but money talks, and money that walks away from them en masse will get their attention.

 

And money that stays local in mom and pop (or mom or pop) businesses and solopreneurs gets circulated locally.

 

It’s a win-win-win all the way around.