Where Are You on the Shopping Loyalty Scale?

Shoppers, let’s boil it down to this: Are you root-for-the-underdog boutique shopper excited about Small Business Saturday, a pajama-clad Cyber Monday shopper or an attack-trained Black Friday shopper already getting caffeinated for the big assault?

Walk into a department store and you'll see folks making revving motions with their right wrists as if the shopping cart were an off-road assault quadricycle. They whip out credit cards as if they were switchblades. They practically need airbags on their carts because they're often used as ramming devices. These are the Big Box Backers on the hunt for great deals and all the while blaming boutique businesses for charging too much.

Walk down San Anselmo Avenue or Bolinas Road and you might see someone with several bags of items purchased in the heart of our local communities. These are rarer animals who aren't hunting for electronic gadgets or name-brand, high-volume items. These are the Small Box Backers who want nothing to do with Black Friday and have no problem paying a tad more for a gift that might be more personalized.

The day after Thanksgiving has become a commerce-fueled holiday in its own rite, and Cyber Monday on Nov. 26 is set aside for online shopping. As an economic counterattack, the Nov. 24 is Small Business Saturday, a nationwide campaign to support locally owned businesses.

Vote in our poll — Big Business vs. Small Business? — and explain why you feel that way by adding a comment. While you’re at it, give us a wish list of brick-and-mortar businesses San Anselmo and Fairfax could really use.

One way or another, some of the dollars you spend trick down to support your local government. And that’s why city and business leaders in San Anselmo and Fairfax hope you will resist the urge to head out of town. Sales tax generated this holiday season at local businesses will result in the city’s ability to offer recreation programs, maintain street medians and pay for protection from police forces, among many other services.

If you spend your dollars in San Rafael, Novato or beyond, you’re doing nothing to support your own community. For the sake of local pride and to cheer on our friends who own small businesses, San Anselmo - Fairfax Patch urges you to spend your dollars right here in town.

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