Get out today and support Small Business Saturday

We need vibrant main streets in 15-minute cities and towns, and small businesses are key.

My daughter manages the Red Rocket coffee shop on a Main Street here.

I don’t usually post on Saturday, but this is a bonus post, a compilation of bits of a dozen Treehugger posts I wrote about Small Business Saturday.

Small Business Saturday doesn’t get the attention that Black Friday does. It’s another invented holiday set up by American Express (which many small businesses won’t even accept because their fees are so high) and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I liked it because small businesses often occupy old buildings. As Stephanie Meeks of the Trust noted:

When we invest in small businesses, we are investing in Main Streets - the places that give our towns and cities a unique sense of place. By celebrating Small Business Saturday and shopping at independent businesses, everyone can play a part in strengthening our economy and supporting revitalization on our Main Streets.

My daughter mongers cheese in Nancy’s on a Main Street here.

I like it for selfish reasons; my kids monger cheese, pull espressos or pour beer in local businesses.

I liked the idea of preserving jobs and suppliers in the face of the march of Amazon and big boxes, as Michael Shuman noted in The Small-Mart Revolution:

It means nurturing locally owned businesses which use local resources sustainably, employ local workers at decent wages and serve primarily local consumers. It means becoming more self-sufficient and less dependent on imports. Control moves from the boardrooms of distant corporations and back into the community where it belongs.

I liked it because it is good for promoting walkable urbanism. If we are going to get people out of cars, there has be an alternative. as Alex Steffen noted,

There is a direct relationship between the kinds of places we live, the transportation choices we have, and how much we drive. The best car-related innovation we have is not to improve the car, but eliminate the need to drive it everywhere we go.

I like it because it supports one of the core planning concepts for dealing with the climate crisis: the 15-minute city, the catchy name thought up by Carlos Moreno, for what everybody did before the era of big cars and big box stores. A well-developed 15-minute city can dramatically reduce carbon emissions by getting people out of cars, both for shopping and for employment. As more people work from home or from neighbourhood co-working spots, they need the amenities, the shopping, and the restaurants. As the C-40 Mayors note,

"A successful 15-minute neighbourhood is ‘complete’ with core services and amenities that residents can easily walk or cycle to. This includes community-scale education and healthcare, essential retail like grocery shops and pharmacies, parks for recreation, working spaces, and more."

I like the C-40 Mayor’s vision for a green and just recovery, with:

"sustainable, efficient and safe mass transit systems that keep our cities moving and our economies running, while leaving our streets car-free, air clean and skies blue. All residents will live in ’15-minute cities’, where shops, workspaces and essential services are easily reached within a short cycle or walk, surrounded by plenty of green spaces where they can relax, exercise and play."

I like it because it helps us fight back against the online shopping that is killing small businesses that are the backbone of our main streets. As Sarah Butler noted in the Guardian:

“It is not just about shoppers preferring to buy online – although 20% of fashion sales, where the pressures are perhaps worst, have now moved to the internet. There’s been a seismic shift in the way we spend our time and money. Social media, leisure, travel, eating out, eating in – using takeaways and delivery services – and technology are all taking time and cash that would once have gone straight to shops.”

This is why "shop small," and Small Business Saturday are so much more than just an American Express promotion. It's about rethinking how we build and maintain healthier, low-carbon, 15-minute cities. It's about creating jobs for our kids in our communities. It is about a much bigger picture of how we want to live.

So support Small Business Saturday ... and keep doing it all year long.