Helping the hometown, shopping local

It’s the calm before the storm: Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the rush of holiday shopping. But Central Oregon merchants are hoping you make local businesses your first shopping choice, to fill those big gift boxes at somewhere other than big-box stores.

Robin Buckles at The Paper Place in Sisters says you get a lot more variety in items that big-box stores may not carry.

“Money stays local,” she said Sunday. “It feeds back into the community locally, back into the schools, back into keeping the area vital, which is so important for the folks that live here.”

The weather is another factor when driving or walking from store to store.

“The weather the snow, the impact of the plowing of the snow and the lack of parking, and all of that can make it very challenging,” Buckles said.

But despite some recent snow, they still manage in downtown Sisters, and Buckles stresses it’s shoppers and tourists that keep them running.

According to Civic Economics, for every $100 spent on local stores, $68 stays in your local community, while at the big retailers, $43 remains in local pockets — and shopping online leaves the community with virtually nothing.

Small Business Saturday, the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, was launched in 2010 by American Express. The Shop Small campaign targets small business owners, shoppers and cardholders that can benefit from shopping locally. You can find which local businesses support Shop Small by visiting https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/shop-small/.

Jesse Sweetman, the co-owner of Redmond Craft Brewing Supply, says cardholders “have perks on their American Express card — perks that they’ll get back, so it’s more in their benefit to use their American Express card, and we want to be able to support that.”