it's that time of year again and unless you bake cookies or pick flowers for a mason jar, you're shopping. what better way to support local business than shopping small, shopping local? it's really fun, while being a bit of a scavenger hunt, and not that hard if you plan your day/days out ahead of time. back in our "oprah's favorite things" days (thank you, oprah), we were swamped. swamped! lovely swamped!!! that was late november of 2007 and the "oprah effect" had landed hard at kai h.q. shop small didn't exist at that time and needless to say, shopping was the last thing i had on my mind but there was simply no way around it. short on time and energy i took my husband's big car and headed to the very small shopping centers in malibu proper. walking would have been an option but with bags and boxes, i drove the two minutes. how nice is that?
back then my sleepy little town was even sleepier but i returned from my "small" shopping evening triumphant. not only was i thrilled with my time savings but in supporting my little speck of earth here.

here are a few facts about shop small saturday:

started in 2010, shop small saturday is a counterpart to black friday and cyber monday, which feature big box retail and e-commerce stores respectively. by contrast, small business saturday encourages holiday shoppers to patronize brick and mortar businesses that are small and local. last year, a record 95 million shoppers supported small businesses on this day! it's clearly being embraced as a holiday tradition.
here at kai, we are so thankful for each of our retailers, big and small, independent or otherwise, and encourage all who are reading this to shop kai locally this saturday. you can find a retailer near you here.

have a beautiful thanksgiving.

xo,
gaye.