Do you need 6lbs of chocolate? No. You want 6lbs of chocolate. There’s a difference.
If you watch television then at some point you will have clicked onto one of those channels where you can shop from home. Have you seen how these people sell brownies? Crumb cake? And yes, 6lb tins of individually wrapped chocolates? Whoa. It’s scary because it works. And that’s not necessarily a good thing. Take those brownies for a moment.
They squeeze the brownies, hold them up to the camera and show you how fudgy and dense they are. They use words like “smothered, rich, moist and drizzled” to help you taste the chocolaty flavors. These sales people get their fingers and their mouths all over the product and you sit there living vicariously through them and before you know it, you have to buy those brownies for your sister, Mary, who is a brownie connoisseur. Regardless that these are factory-made brownies or that Mary has won countless blue ribbons at country festivals for her brownies. Nope. You swear these brownies are the most delicious things since real butter and that they will be the perfect gift for her. And you haven’t even tasted them.
Do you see what just happened? Televised brownie coma straight to your wallet from a large corporation that makes thousands of brownies a day. You can’t smell a thing. You can’t taste a thing; you can’t even touch the products. But you’re salivating, you’re convinced and you’re reaching for the credit card.
Whoa! Hold on a sec! Who are you really buying these for? And is this a want or a need? Does Mary want brownies as a gift? Just because she bakes award-winning brownies does she really need three dozen brownies that some stranger in a hairnet packed into a box on a factory line?
This is when it’s time to rethink your gift giving strategy this holiday season. This is when you need to call in the big guns. You need your local small business experts to pry you away from that television. They can provide gift therapy, heck, gift salvation, right there in their store. They know their products like the backs of their hands and are happy to let you sample them to decide if they’re really worth your hard-earned dollars.
A small business owner knows how to find out from you what Mary might really appreciate as a gift. How about a fabulous cookbook by a world-renowned dessert chef that lets your sister take some new recipes for a spin? Or an awesome hand-stitched apron with perfect pockets for her baking tools? Or maybe she would love a couple of bags of locally fresh-roasted coffee beans for a new espresso brownie recipe she’s creating? And don’t forget homemade dog treats for her dog, Skippy Jane, instead of those tasteless commercial brands with names like Farmer Bob’s All Natural Dog Jerky, (because corn comes from nature). How about a gift card to the local chefs store so she can go in and get some new kitchen toys? Who knows? She might just branch out into pound cake next year because you gave her the ability to try something different.
The possibilities for unique and personalized holiday shopping are endless when you buy local because small business owners are experts. They know their stuff and they’re in business for you. Want to know a secret? Small business owners want you to give gifts that will not only have meaning, but will actually be used by the folks you are giving to this year.
Turn off the television. Take your credit card or cash for a spin down Main Street this year on Small Business Saturday. Let the real experts show you the treasures you cannot get from overseas factories. Give them a chance to broaden your local horizons and get excited about holiday shopping again. Because when you give a gift it’s all about that one moment when the person lifts their eyes to yours and you see that glow of happiness that says, “Wow. You really thought about me.”
One well-thought gift will mean more to them than twenty closet stuffers piled under the tree this year.
Small Business Saturday, a day when you get to taste the fudgy brownies before you decide to buy them. Get out there and get personal. – Mike Wolpert
