Post Holiday Thoughts, Questions and Musings from Live Local USA

I'm trying to catch up here so please excuse the randomness of this post. It's been a crazy week and honestly I'm just thankful to have made it through Christmas. It's a time of the year that can be pretty tough for some of us - as I'm sure many of you know.

Holiday Choices "the Nuts and Bolts of Savvy Seasonal Spending"

Small businesses have been described in a multitude of ways, as different facets of a location, and explained in a variety of terms. Personally, I like the option which illustrates them as the pulse of a community; a vibrant force operating and thriving throughout the streets and buildings of a place where people live, work and play.

Support Your Independent Brewery | Celebrating Local Beer

I wholeheartedly believe in "living local" and making a targeted effort to visit and spend at unique family-owned and operated businesses and companies. Not only does this choice helps to recirculate more money back into the economy right where we live, there's an immeasurable benefit to knowing the people who make up the community that you call home. While we so often focus our attention on the dedicated mom and pop retailers, long-time local restaurants and indie shops of all kinds, we'd want to also focus on the beverage category.

Back To Basics | "Why Local Businesses Matter" in Black and White

It's Labor Day weekend '18 and I'm trying to come up with something inspiring to post - something timely which might fit in with the holiday theme about the American worker, people dedicated to a passion such as their small businesses we love so much. I'm struggling for unique words to explain why local choices are better or perhaps find a different way to illustrate the importance of small businesses and mom and pop-run establishments.

Maybe what I need isn't going to be found or identified as "new material" but perhaps a better angle or platform with which to reach people. I believe there are others out there who share these views and a love of the independent businesses of America - there must be folks who would want to join this cause and help spread the word, right? Surely I'm not the only one who feels this way?

Is It REALLY That Difficult To Keep Our Independent Businesses Around?

This is hard to post, and last night it was tough to read and digest the article "As a decades-old school supply store shuts down, local owners say they're facing shifts in retail, education". If I'm seeing is simply failure on the part of the schools to make one extra step to purchase locally, that's a huge problem. When did it get so hard to make the effort to spend in our own communities? Why is it always too hard to make the extra effort - to take one more step and keep a local business in place? (photo via WRAL.com)

"Don't Let This Happen to your Town" (the Death of Small Businesses Where You Live)

Originally posted back in 2014 under a different user name, I'm resharing this again. I still feel - despite the melancholy tone - that it has value and may inspire someone to really think before they leave town to shop elsewhere. We can't deny that this is indeed taking place all through our Main Streets and downtowns, neighborhoods and cities, and while I know "retail" as we once knew it will never be quite the same, I'm afraid that we as a society have stopped considering the implications of our choices, decisions and spending.

Support Your Independent Businesses by Shopping Local for Mom

Why shop local for Mother's Day? Because no one wants to give mom the same thing as everyone else. Many chain and big box stores all carry very similar items found from coast to coast. But the real deal, the unique things, now THOSE are often found in the smaller, local shops around the community. Don't give the same thing as everyone else - instead make the effort to visit, enjoy and support your independent retailers, restaurants, florists and businesses right where you live.

I Want to Tell You About Bookstores and Small Businesses Owners

It's Independent Bookstore Day and because I have this crazy passion for small business and the people who keep them open, I've been searching the internet for articles and news stories, promotional events and celebrations. I love to see the creativity which is born from small shops and entrepreneur dreams; read about places that have fought hard for years and decades to stay open and remain a piece of their local communities.

Independent Bookstore Day | "I Asked If You Would Go Buy a Book...."

Independent Bookstore Day is approaching on April 28th, and I was all out of ideas for ways to observe, take part or acknowledge the date. We've asked you before plenty of times to tag your fav indie shop, to post and tell us what the local corner stores mean to you, and to offer up names of places you can't imagine living without. And now, I just....want more.

Celebrating Entrepreneurship: It's Mom and Pop Business Owners Day

Did you know? March 29th is "National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day", a day to celebrate and recognize the owners of independents which make up so many of our favorite places, local icons and the history and fabric of our communities. There is so much more to acknowledge about Mom & Pop businesses than could fit into just one day! They are the heart and soul of our neighborhoods, the trusted people we turn to and the ones that for decades and generations have made our communities great.

Spend The Green Where You Live | A Local St. Patty's Day

The words "Spend Local" are far more than just a statement or a buzz phrase. They represent the choices we have, the decisions we make and an ongoing commitment to contribute to the overall health of our city or town. By carefully selecting where we use our dollars each week, month and year, we are participating in a conscious lifestyle to support the places that matter the most.

  

"All Gone" A Restaurant That Isn't There Anymore (Why To Support Your Indie Businesses Now)

February 26th, 2018: I was scrolling through Facebook when a share from a friend caught my eye. It goes without saying that the first few words drew a strong reaction from me, as a supporter and advocate of small businesses, but I wasn't expecting the post I found to stir up such emotions in me as it did. Sometimes I hate that about myself, that I care so deeply or let the news of a closure bother me, but I can't help it. They matter to me - they matter to so many of us - that it feels like a personal loss when for the last time, a door swings shut and is reopened no more. (Note: the images here were borrowed from the Facebook page to illustrate the points).

America's Independent Pharmacy “How We Changed the Way We Spend”

A few weeks ago I came across one of my blog posts from 2016, It's National Pharmacist Day. I'd featured a few independently-owned pharmacies, and couldn't help but wonder how they are doing now. When the first two links showed up as dead ends I assumed it was my mistake.....it wasn’t however; the links were as lifeless as the establishments they’d once led to, and a search of news articles confirmed what I feared, that these places had indeed closed their doors forever. Out of seven locations in that blog post, two years later only five remained in operation.