SHB Explores

Imagine this: You’re excited for an afternoon of shopping but, despite your best attempts to recruit a willing shopping companion, you are on your own. Or worse yet, you’re with your teenager who is much too cool to be seen in public with you but is going along because they need a new winter coat and wouldn’t be caught dead in anything you picked out for them.

With Christmas fast approaching, you really need to get some things crossed off your list. Sure, you could spend an afternoon scrolling on your phone, adding to cart, then discovering days later that what you thought was 3 oz of the most delicious scented lotion is actually 30 ounces of something you once smelled in a gas station restroom, or that x-small sweater your daughter insisted would fit her wouldn’t even fit your cat. You know what sounds more appealing than standing in line at the post office to send purchases back while hoping the replacements you ordered will arrive in time and won’t be similarly disappointing? Everything. Everything else sounds more appealing. Suddenly you realize that time you were trapped on a plane for three hours with a screaming baby with a diaper blowout wasn’t so bad as you stand in line at the post office between the man hacking up his lungs behind you and the woman loudly narrating her every move on speaker phone in front of you. 

The good news is that your holiday- or any time of the year- shopping doesn’t have to be this way. I’m sure you’ve heard about the benefits of shopping local and maybe you even know that for every dollar spent, roughly 68 cents is reinvested in the local economy. Let’s look at it this way: if your super cool teenager feels they’re too cool to work some of the jobs available at their age, they might find a job they love with a locally owned small business where they are more likely to get personalized training and mentoring. In addition to supporting a business owner who lives in the community, the taxes paid as a business owner and resident funnel back into the community. You can view, touch, and smell what you’re buying so there’s no fear of eau de gas station bathroom, and you walk out of the store with your purchase, reducing your carbon footprint and providing the comfort of knowing you have your purchase on time and in one piece- or however many pieces it is supposed to be- versus however many pieces it arrives in after being tossed around in transit.

In the immortal words of Billy Mays, “But wait! There’s more!” Locally owned shops, such as those in Downtown Alexandria, often hold carefully curated selections of unique items and have the best customer service. If you want a recommendation, second opinion, or any kind of assistance, you won’t feel like you’re on a safari looking for an endangered species as you track down an employee. Often, you will be interacting directly with the business owner and benefitting from the knowledge and passion they possess. They might even have recommendations for the nearly-impossible-to-shop-for people on your list, like your teenager who still can’t believe they have been dragged along on this shopping expedition and is hiding across the store hoping no one realizes you are their parent.

Get out there and smell those lotions. Enjoy the shopping experience, and have a very merry holiday season.