Support local shops, farms, and other independent businesses this Holiday Season.

The idea of Buy Local Week is to encourage people from through out the Pioneer Valley to shop with the many great local, independent businesses here in Western Massachusetts. Essentially, for you to 'shift' your shopping from non-local to local stores for Christmas and the Holidays. To learn more about the Shift Your Shopping campaign and our Think Local, Thank Local campaign to help out local, family farmers, please click here.

According to the results of the Andersonville Study, when you shop with a locally owned, independent business 58% more money stays in your local economy than when you shop at a national chain store. Secondly, local non-profit groups on average receive 350% more money from locally owned stores than from their non-local counter-parts.

National Buy Local Week is an opportunity for locally owned businesses and the community to work together to increase the local economic impact of holiday spending, create more jobs, more tax revenue and a more stable local economy.

Because locally owned businesses spend substantially more money locally, they typically generate two to four times the economic multiplier benefit for their communities as do non-local businesses. As holiday season spending represents the largest chunk of revenue for retailers in a single year, a shift of just 10% of holiday spending toward locally owned businesses has the potential to create an impact of billions in economic activity in just two months.

By shopping locally, the presents you buy for your friends and loved ones turn out to be gifts for your community as well.