What You Need to Know Before You #ShopSmall in the Royal Oak Area

Local businesses across southeast Michigan are offering special incentive on Small Business Saturday and throughout the holiday shopping season. (Photo via City of Royal Oak)

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First observed in 2010, Small Business Saturday – Nov. 29, 2014 – is a counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which feature big box retail and e-commerce stores respectively.

In contrast, the American Express Corp.-sponsored Small Business Saturday encourages holiday shoppers to patronize brick-and- mortar businesses that are small and local.

Why shop small? Here are a few reasons:

For every $100 spent at a locally owned business, $68 stays in the local economy. That compares to only $43 if the same dollar were spent at a national chain.

Local businesses procure local goods and services at more than twice the rate of chain stores.

If each household simply redirected just $100 of planned holiday spending from chain stores to locally owned merchants, the local economic impact would reach approximately $10 million.

Here in The Mitten, we’ve got about 30 reasons you should eschew the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales in favor of Small Business Saturday. Click the links below for special Small Business Saturday promotions, business listings on Chamber of Commerce sites and other resources in the 30 Michigan Patch communities or areas.

Go!

1. Birmingham: Enjoy Birmingham
2. Bloomfield-Bloomfield Hills: Birmingham-Bloomfield Chamber
3. Brighton: Downtown Brighton on Facebook
4. Chelsea: Chelsea Chamber of Commerce
5. Clawson: Downtown Clawson on Facebook
6. Clinton Township: Clinton Township Town Planner
7. Dearborn: Dearborn Area Chamber of Commerce
8. Dexter: Dexter Chamber of Commerce
9. Farmington-Farmington Hills: Downtown Farmington
10. Fenton: Fenton Regional Chamber of Commerce
11. Ferndale: Downtown Ferndale
12. Grosse Pointe: Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce
13. Hartland: Hartland Chamber of Commerce
14. Huntington Woods-Berkley: Berkley Area Chamber of Commerce
15. Macomb Township: Macomb County Chamber of Commerce
16. New Baltimore-Chesterfield: Anchor Bay Chamber of Commerce on Facebook
17. Northville: Downtown Northville
18. Novi: Novi Chamber of Commerce
19. Oakland Township-Lake Orion: Orion Area Chamber of Commerce
20. Plymouth-Canton: Plymouth Chamber of Commerce and Canton Chamber of Commerce
21. Rochester: Downtown Rochester
22. Royal Oak: Downtown Royal Oak
23. Saline: Saline Main Street on Facebook
24. Shelby-Utica: Shelby Area Chamber of Commerce
25. St. Clair Shores: City of St. Clair Shores on Facebook
26. Trenton-Grosse Ile: Grosse Ile small business listing and Southern Wayne County Chamber of Commerce
27. Troy: Downtown Troy
28. West Bloomfield: West Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce
29. White Lake-Highland: Huron Valley Chamber of Commerce
30. Wyandotte: Downtown Wyandotte