<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><img src="cid:2F5B2D7B-EACB-4447-BDE9-F7C4A5AA8FB7" alt="Small-Business-Saturday_zps30600062.jpg" id="2F5B2D7B-EACB-4447-BDE9-F7C4A5AA8FB7" width="320" height="240"></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of the Journal-News (Hillsboro, Illinois) at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://www.thejournal-news.net/opinion/commentary/saturday-is-the-day-to-shop-small/article_92d5f5d2-5580-11e3-94e5-001a4bcf887a.html">http://www.thejournal-news.net/opinion/commentary/saturday-is-the-day-to-shop-small/article_92d5f5d2-5580-11e3-94e5-001a4bcf887a.html</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------</div><div><h1 id="blox-asset-title" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; line-height: 34px; font-size: 30px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="blox-headline entry-title" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 38px;">Saturday Is The Day To Shop Small</span></h1><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important; overflow: visible !important; position: relative !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We have all suffered from it–the loss of the small business that used to be the life blood of the local community. This Saturday is our opportunity to do something. We can shop small.</span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important; overflow: visible !important; position: relative !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The day after what has become monickered as "Black Friday," the biggest shopping day of the year, has in recent years been dubbed "Small Business Saturday."</span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important; overflow: visible !important; position: relative !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Small businesses are the building blocks of our community. When we shop at local businesses, we support the things that make our community great.</span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important; overflow: visible !important; position: relative !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Our shopping dollars go to our friends, our neighbors, and they come back to us. They come back to us in the salaries the small business owners pay their employees to help our community grow, and they come back to us in the taxes that small businesses pay to keep our schools running and our police cars rolling.</span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important; overflow: visible !important; position: relative !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When our small businesses succeed, not only do they help our community, but their success encourages others with a good idea and a little ambition that this might not be such a bad place to open up a little shop themselves.</span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important; overflow: visible !important; position: relative !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That reverses the spiral–you know the one–when one businesses closes and the resulting job losses soon forces others to close, and the business community spirals downward. </span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important; overflow: visible !important; position: relative !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It also spirals upward. Businesses flourishing help other business succeed. That's why economic development professionals say that one good full-time job is responsible for creating three others.</span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important; overflow: visible !important; position: relative !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It won't happen overnight, but it's time to start reversing the spiral. The newspaper you are holding is full of advertisements from your friends and neighbors who operate small businesses and are just waiting for you to walk in the door–eager to show you the incredible service and value you get for every dime you spend at their place.</span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important; overflow: visible !important; position: relative !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This Saturday is Small Business Saturday. Get out and shop small.</span></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------<br><br>This is what makes Moscow so unique, so special.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">If Moscow were to be loaded down with large-box chain stores, Moscow would degenerate to <i>Anytown, USA.</i> I don't think anybody wants that.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Anybody care to join me in town tomorrow for a little shopping, maybe a cup or two of coffee at <i>One World Cafe</i>?<br><br><div>Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">There's room at the top they are telling you still</span><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> </span></div><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill </span><br style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">- John Lennon<br></span></font><div> </div></div><div><br></div></div></div></body></html>