PortsmouthNH.com has partnered with local businesses and independent business advocacy groups to launch “Shift Your Shopping NH.”
On Nov. 1, the eighth annual Shift Your Shopping holiday campaign launched for the 2018 season, encouraging individuals and businesses to “shift” more of their holiday shopping, entertaining, and dining to locally owned and independent businesses. PortsmouthNH.com, along with 26 other businesses, organizations, and networks in towns and cities throughout New Hampshire, will kick off this collaborative campaign this week. The campaign continues through December.
Shift Your Shopping’s mission is to “build a tradition that strengthens local economies, expands local employment, nurtures a sense of community, and provides a more relaxed, fun, and rewarding holiday shopping experience.”
“It’s local, independent businesses that drive the economy of Portsmouth and the Seacoast and make our community a vibrant place to live,” said Matt Kanner, publisher of PortsmouthNH.com. “We encourage everyone to shift their holiday shopping away from big chain stores and online retailers. Nobody wants a mail-ordered gift from Amazon anyway.”
Monadnock Buy Local participated in Shift Your Shopping with partners around the nation in 2010. Now the network invites like-minded businesses to grow the campaign in the Granite State. Partners bring their own local flair, using Shift Your Shopping templates as well as incorporating events like Plaid Friday and Cider Monday (pro-local antidotes to the chain-centered Black Friday and “Cyber Monday”) into their efforts. The campaign also encourages people to employ the energy and resources of Small Business Saturday as part of their season-long outreach plans.
Additionally, the campaign makes a timely economic case for buying local. Every dollar spent at a local, independent business returns 2-4 times more dollars to the community compared to a dollar spent at a non-local business. This money recirculates through the community, boosting job growth, charitable giving, and civic engagement. Sustained “buy local” campaigns have demonstrated their capacity to shift sizable portions of that spending from chains and remote businesses to local entrepreneurs, according to the Institute for Local Self Reliance. ILSR indexes key local economy studies at https://ilsr.org.
Partners are businesses and organizations that understand the increased economic and community benefits that accrue when we spend dollars at locally owned, independent businesses. They also value programs and policies that build a local, green, and fair economy rooted in the Granite State.
To date, partners include Monadnock Buy Local, Local First Alliance, White Mountain Independents, NH Food Alliance, Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire (NOFA-NH), Stay Work Play, The Sustainability Institute, atHOME Magazine, PortsmouthNH.com, Seacoast Eat Local, Belletetes Inc.,Bric & Brac, Country Bridals, Cove of Treasures, Farmers’ Market of Keene, Food Connects, Givey’s Barber Shop, Greater Keene Chamber of Commerce, Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce, Jaffrey Civic Center, Keene First Friday Art Hop, Monadnock Arts Alive, Monadnock Food Co-op, Monadnock Sustainability Network, Monadnock Time Exchange, The Melamine Cup, and TEAM Jaffrey.
About Shift Your Shopping NH
The Shift Your Shopping NH website (shiftyourshoppingnh.org/sysnh) provides a gateway to resources from many community campaigns and includes easy-to-use graphics and activities that allow participating partners to spread the critical message easily where they live. Visit the site for information on the campaign, partnering organizations, special events, and stories from Granite State communities making the shift in 2018.