EDITORIAL: Shop local on Small Biz Saturday

Throngs of Flathead Valley shoppers are scouring stores today for good deals as “Black Friday” kicks off the holiday shopping season. It’s a precursor to “Cyber Monday,” the busiest e-commerce shopping day. But there’s another retail promotion sandwiched between those two shopping extravaganzas that is the most important one to our local business community: Small Business Saturday. 

This event has gained a lot of traction in recent years and is the perfect opportunity to support small businesses that remain the backbone of the Flathead economy.

American Express first sponsored Small Business Saturday in 2010 as a way to encourage holiday shoppers to patronize locally owned small businesses. This “shop small” campaign is the perfect way to give back to the businesses that support our communities in so many ways, from sponsoring Little League teams to donating silent auction items to benefit any number of nonprofit organizations.

Throughout the valley more than 200 businesses have signed up for Small Business Saturday, a huge increase over last year. Area Chambers of Commerce are coordinating this special shopping day and getting the word out about the value of shopping small. Make your dollars count in the best possible way this year by shopping local and small. 

Skijoring event added

Local events are another important component of our diverse economy because they bring visitors to the valley to spend money on hotels, restaurants and shopping.

That’s why we were happy to see Lakeside get a kickstart at the beginning of 2017 with a new skijoring event.

The Flathead Lake Skijoring Championships will be held Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 on a private airstrip at the Lakeside Club south of Lakeside. Skijoring, in case you don’t know, is a fantastic event that combines horsemanship and skiing in a wild ride that makes for a fun spectator sport.

Add this to the Whitefish World Invitational Skijoring competition, which is held later in January, and the Flathead Valley is soon going to be known as the go-to place for the winter racing crowd.