Newspaper

The doors are wide open as shoppers stream into stores for the Black Friday shop-’til-you-drop specials ensuring piles of gifts will find their way underneath Christmas trees.

Many national retail stores opened Thanksgiving for crowds looking to get a jump on items ranging from the latest toys, electronic gadgets, computers, smart devices, big-screen TVs, jewelry and clothing.

Another segment of shoppers will go online to find many of the gifts they seek, while others will do both.

With all the convenience of online shopping and the promotional budgets of large retailers, home-owned stores have found many ways to attract their share of the holiday business. Local merchants have benefited in Cullman, for example, from events that draw large crowds to town for entertainment, providing opportunities for extended hours and special sales to showcase products.

Before the rise of massive chain stores and the internet, local merchants met the challenge of providing a wide range of goods to fill the needs of shoppers. As the buying and selling power of the national stores grew with more competitive pricing and marketing, the independent businesses turned to more specialized items for customers.

Local merchants remain a large foundation of the community. Their commitment to operating across Cullman County not only adds to the sales tax collection that funds local services, many of the owners are important supporters of local organizations reaching out to provide assistance to residents. They also serve leadership roles in everything from local government to charity and civic organization boards.

The existence and success of local business owners is also vital to drawing visitors to the area. The trend in locally-owned stores is to offer unique specialty items backed with excellent customer service and the assurance the products are high in quality.

A trend has also been emerging bringing shoppers back to locally-owned stores. That’s good for communities across the region, because traveling to shop creates an exchange of commerce and ideas that provide economic strength and durability.

Everyone has a Christmas shopping list that requires going to a lot of different stores. For many people, that’s part of the fun of the season.

Visit as many local stores as possible, and discover or rediscover the hometown merchants – remember some of the stores offer online shopping and most can order items you need that are not in stock.

We encourage shoppers to shop local as much as possible. The benefits for our community are far reaching when shopping dollars stay at home.