Local First Utah's annual Shift Your Spending Week begins today. We're encouraging people to shift 10% of their holiday spending away from online and national retailers, toward local businesses in their own communities. Why? Well, first of all, spending locally keeps your money in the local Utah economy. But that's not all...
Shifting your spending is the first step toward shifting your thinking. When we realize that vibrant, living neighborhoods are incomplete without the local businesses and business owners who call those very same neighborhoods home, we must conclude that this week is about much more than money.
Indie Shopping at 15th & 15th
Big box stores advertising their increasingly early openings (many beginning on Thanksgiving day itself) might dominate billboards and TV, but the truth is, you do have a choice. That's why the 15th & 15th district created their own Black Friday alternative: 15% off at 15th & 15th.
Headed up by 15th &15th neighborhood icon, The King's English Bookshop, many 15th & 15th businesses such as 15th Street Gallery will be offering 15% off on all Friday purchases. The King's English Bookshop even announced that they would continue the 15% off sale throughout Shift Your Spending week: through Friday, December 6.
Indie Bookstores Unite!
In addition to offering special sales, The King's English Bookshop, along with Weller Book Works, will be participating in the "Indies First" movement, which brings local authors into indie bookstores for a day. If you play your cards right, you may even be able to make a holiday purchase from Josh Hanagarne, popularly known as the strongest librarian in the world.
Hanagarne, along with a slew of other authors will be visiting The King's English Bookshop during Shift Your Spending Week, signing books, working at the counter, and making recommendations!
So make sure you stop by and support your local businesses this season, whether at 15th & 15th or any of the other awesome SLC neighborhood districts—because where you spend your money really does matter!
