 Today was all about catching the best Black Friday deals, but tomorrow your favorite neighborhood stores take center stage for Small Business Saturday. Small Business Saturday is a retail holiday meant to highlight the local businesses that keep a community thriving. Shopping at small local businesses not only helps the local store owners, it also helps your local economy. According to Fawn Bureau financial services, when you spend $100 at a local community business, exactly $68 stays with the local economy. We feel that there is a ripple effect when you shop local, really preserving the local flavor of a community and supporting businesses that are invested in the community. A lot of businesses that are locally owned, we as a co-op are owned by our members and so people have a really big stake in the success of the business. Another benefit to shopping local is you get to learn exactly where your items come from. For example, at the Harmony Co-op, the employees can tell you exactly which local farmers provided the produce. It ripples out into businesses like ours purchase more goods and services from other local businesses and have a vested interest in the success of those around us. And then it's also shopping local is a really good way to just get to know your community, to know the products that other people are excited about. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.