As the last of the turkey sandwiches are eaten, the lawn work taken care of, today will turn to Saturday and there is only one way to spend it.

Shop Small Saturday is a day created through the buzz of this wonderful 21st century, an answer to Black Friday and Cyber Monday that helps the people we know and love in our communities.

The annual Thanksgiving traditions are fun. There is always a pro football game in Detroit and Dallas. There are movies, and who among us doesn’t seem to enjoy a good Tom Hanks flick?

Anyone who hasn’t seen an ad slick, a pop up ad or countless television commercials since Halloween that tout the latest and greatest amid fake snow and lots of red just hasn’t been watching. Christmas trees in stores were up before the end of October.

The sales blitz is dizzying.

We know a great number of people will battle the crowds and do business today on Black Friday. It’s the day retailers figure to earn their biggest profit, to go in the black. Police in 1960s Philadelphia coined the term a bit differently, for heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic shopping on the day after Thanksgiving.

Either way, its best competition as the busiest shopping day of the year is the Saturday before Christmas. And with the birth of Christ being celebrated on a Wednesday this time around, there’s reason to believe the December date will win out. That and the fact this year is the shortest time there can be between Thanksgiving and Christmas (barely over three weeks), whereas last year was the longest.

Today won’t be the only big day. We know just as many or more will use the comforts of home to go online for Cyber Monday. It, too, has found its niche.

Both have pros and cons. But we know of something more beneficial.

Shop Small Saturday keeps our hard-earned dollars right here in Bladen County. There’s a lot to find in our downtown stores, and in places scattered throughout the county.

The shopkeepers are people we see in restaurants, the grocery store, at the ball games and at the big celebrations of our lives. They have something to offer, and we need to take advantage.

It’s an investment, keeping our neighborhoods strong and sustaining our community. Neighbors are linked when they shop local.

Spend it online, or in a bigger chain, and there’s no telling who that dollar helps. Here, the sales tax goes to city services, neighborhood improvements and community development.

We can create jobs when we shop with the local owners who hire our friends and neighbors.

In just over three weeks, it’ll be time to open the gifts. Do something meaningful beforehand — give the gift of shopping local.

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