I like the idea of Small Business Saturday. For those unfamiliar, it was started two years ago by American Express to support small businesses between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
When you make a purchase from a small business, it helps their bottom line by a much greater percentage than a big box retailer’s. Same in my industry. When we land a contract, it has a larger positive effect on our company than for a large agency.
Of course, I’m not advocating a total avoidance on big box retailers–after all, they were small businesses at some point. But when you can, buy something from a local merchant.