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We wanted to make it easy for you to find great gifts from locally owned businesses. So we created the Independent We Stand Holiday Gift Guide as a way for you to find and share the special items that you can only find at independently owned businesses.
SPRINGFIELD — The family behind Fernandez Family Restaurant in Holyoke is expanding, adding a banquet hall at the former Adelphia Restaurant in South Hadley and creating 12 to 15 new jobs, with the help of the state treasurer’s Small Business Banking Partnership.
November 24th is the third annual Small Business Saturday, a day dedicated to supporting small businesses nationwide. We are proud to be partnering with American Express once again to help make this event the biggest day of the year for small businesses. This year, over 100 million people will “shop small” on Small Business Saturday.
As Hurricane Sandy worked its way inland Tuesday, small-business owners along the East Coast spent most of the day sizing up the damages left in the storm’s wake—if they could get to their businesses at all.
Sandy the Frankenstorm is barreling her way up the East Coast, flooding coastal towns, closing schools, and shutting down major metropolitan transportation systems. While safety of employees and customers is always a top concern, for most business owners, worries of how they will recover from Sandy financially are never far away.
The big food makers face a serious challenge for 2013: Consumers will want to eat even “smaller.” Not smaller as in less, but smaller as in locally grown, inspired by street vendors and loaded with fresh, veggie concoctions. So says a 2013 food trends report by the research firm Culinary Visions, scheduled to be released on Tuesday.
Perhaps nothing symbolized the economic downturn like the sight of an empty, closed restaurant. Eateries have been shutting their doors steadily since 2009…until now.
Linda Freed and Debra Latynski own Dolce Pizzelle Cookie Co. in Hammondsville, Ohio. This is their story of how a family tradition turned into owning their own business.
The National Retail Federation’s 2012 Halloween consumer survey reports a record 170 million people plan to celebrate Halloween this year. According to the survey, consumers are also expected to spend more, with the average person spending $79.82 and an estimated total of $8.0 billion for Halloween spending in 2012. Imagine what an impact you could make on your local community if you purchased decorations, costumes and candy from locally owned businesses?
You’ve probably been told a million and one times that you should buy locally grown. And, you’ve also probably seen local farmers markets sprout up around your neighborhood. But why should you buy local? What’s the benefit to you, your community and the environment?
