From your Thanksgiving meal to your New Year’s Eve celebration, are you ready to Shift Your Shopping?  From November 1st to December 31st each year, Monadnock Buy Local works extra hard to ensure your holiday spending matches the community values you support. 

To make our “think local first” message stronger, we participate in the Shift Your Shopping campaign.  This national movement encourages citizens to support local job creation and economic growth through their holiday purchases at locally owned and independent businesses.

How to Participate

Take the Shift Your Shopping pledge to shift at least 10% of your holiday purchases from non-local businesses to locally owned businesses. You can take the Shift Your Shopping pledge online.

When you spend your dollars at locally owned retail businesses in the Monadnock region four times more money returns to our local economy compared to chain retailers.  Spend a dollar at an independent business and 62 cents returns to our local economy, spend it at a chain store and only 13 cents returns.

The money that returns recirculates through our economy, generating ripple effects that create new jobs, charitable contributions and community prosperity.  If everyone shifted just 10% of their purchases from national chains to locally owned retailers, we would return $27 million to our regional economy annually. 

Here are five tips to boost your Shift Your Shopping efforts:

• For inspiration, browse our online directory of 385 locally owned businesses
  
• Ask for advice from 3,992 Monadnock Buy Local fans at our Facebook Page.   
• Discover holiday fairs and other special events on our online calendar.
• Make your own gifts (whether art, food or other creation) and buy your raw materials at locally owned businesses.  You may be able to buy what you need in bulk and save.
• To amplify your impact, buy New Hampshire made and grown gifts at locally owned businesses.  
• Participate in the events we have planned during the Shift Your Shopping season: Plaid Friday and Cider Monday.

Plaid Friday

Wear plaid on Plaid Friday to show your support for our local economy and commitment to buying local this holiday season.  The day to wear plaid this year is Friday, November 23rd. 

A number of Monadnock Buy Local members will serve as Plaid Friday Hubs.  Hubs photograph customers decked out in plaid and answer questions about Plaid Friday and Monadnock Buy Local.  In addition to hubs, some members will offer special events to thank you for stopping in.  LuvInk&Paper in Keene will offer a Plaid Friday Holiday Card Buffet at their studio (103 Roxbury Street – Suite 306) from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and Joseph’s Coat in Peterborough will give 10% off any in-store merchandise to all customers wearing plaid.  See more at monadnocklocal.org/specials.

Wearing plaid in Keene on Plaid Friday? Hop on into the Luxury Box Photo Booth at Ted's Shoe & Sport at 115 Main Street in Keene on November 23rd from 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. We’re also very excited that Beth Pelton of Eight Cattails Imagery will set up a Plaid Friday Photo Booth from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at Harrisville Designs at 4 Mill Alley in Harrisville. 

Monadnock Buy Local will add all the photos taken to our annual collage, celebrating everyone who wore plaid to honor the day.  Check out our gallery of over 400 photos from past Plaid Fridays.

Also, to amplify this year's event, Savings Bank of Walpole will host a Plaid Friday Launch Week from Wednesday, November 21st to Wednesday, November 28th.  The bank will set up information tables at each of their branches with Plaid Friday swag to inspire more people to participate in this year's event.  We encourage community members to wear plaid during launch week and stop by the bank's Marlboro Street branch to take a selfie in front of the bank's Plaid Friday backdrop.  Savings Bank of Walpole will then share these photos on social media to further promote this event.

Cider Monday

That’s not a typo!  Instead of Cyber Monday, a day when online merchants offer special deals, the Toadstool Bookshops invite you to a new tradition, CIDER Monday. On November 26th, stop in for a free cup of cider and browse their amazing selection of books. In response to Cyber Monday, a day when online merchants offer deep discounts to divert your attention away from buying locally, Willard Williams of the Toadstool Bookshops dreamed up this new tradition.

“Customers are promised cider and smiling servers that will not crash,” said Willard.  “As always, we'll offer personal service, advice and the opportunity to touch and try items -- with no logins or passwords necessary!  Join us in taking a bite out of Cyber Monday.”

Discover more at monadnocklocal.org/cidermonday.

Shift Your Shopping Sponsors

A big THANK YOU to this year's Shift Your Shopping and Plaid Friday sponsors: Badger Balm, Brie & Vessie, Brown Computer Solutions, Cheshire Garden, The Cheshire Horse, The Dragonfly Shop, The Farm Concessions & Cafe, Flawlyss Skin, Hannah Grimes Marketplace, Harrisville Designs, Hobbs Jewelers, The Inn at East Hill Farm, Joseph’s Coat, LuvINK&Paper, Luxury Box Photo Booth, Mayfair Farm, MB Massage Studio, Monadnock Food Co-op, Nest Children’s Shop, One Stop Country Pet Supply, Savings Bank of Walpole, Steele's Stationers, Ted's Shoe & Sport, Toadstool Bookshops, VizionZ, Walpole Mountain View Winery and The Yoga Space.

Please join us and Shift Your Shopping this holiday season.  Together we’ll create a true holiday gift to our community -- one that will keep on giving throughout the New Year.