Holiday shopping may be as American as apple pie, but it’s also an American nightmare. As we brace ourselves for the Great Holiday Crush—the long lines, the fight over Elmo and Playstation XXIIV, the constant barrage of Holiday ads—the joy of the Season can wear a little thin, giving rise to the bah-humbug that lurks in all of us. In a shopping year hyped to be busier than last year, with national spending forecasted to exceed $450 billion between now and the New Year, it’s no wonder so many people are heading for the online malls instead.

However, there is a way to shop that will keep the Holiday spring in your step and make a difference in your community. This Holiday season, thousands of shoppers will be choosing to buy local starting with a national Buy Local Day on November 18. While at first blush shopping from independent local retailers may not seem like the obvious remedy for the Holiday Blues, it really is the gift that, in the spirit of the Season, truly keeps on giving.

Every dollar spent in the local economy is like a gift to the community because local businesses are directly connected to our well-being; unlike big chain stores, every dollar you spend locally generates more income, wealth and jobs for the people in your town. Studies show that money spent locally turns over seven times within the community, while that same dollar spent at Wal-Mart leaves so fast you’d think it was being sucked up to the Mother Ship (which…it is).

Big box stores like Wal-Mart are steamrolling their way into cities and towns throughout the country, pushing down wages and forcing small, local businesses to close because they can’t compete with these mega-companies’ predatory practices. By contrast, local businesses produce more tax receipts for local communities than big box stores do. They are more likely to utilize local ads, banks and other services, and to donate money to community nonprofits. Not to mention the fact that buying local preserves the economic diversity and unique character of our neighborhoods, rather than turning them into cookie-cutter versions of Any Town, USA.

You can forget the “low prices always” hype promised by discount stores and chain retailers. Studies show that while Wal-Mart may list prices for generic items at an average of 5 to 10% cheaper, those savings don’t translate to big savings at the cash register. Why? Because it’s a marketing scheme—the average shopper lured by “loss leaders” spends more at giant retailers buying stuff they didn’t really want in the first place. In reality, as revealed by an NBC undercover team, Wal-Mart overcharges customers 10 to 25% of the time, and scholarly research found their scanners yield error rates 8.3% of the time (four times the federal standard). Giant retailers are also banking on the fact that returning a defective or unwanted item is more of a hassle than getting out of their parking lot the day after Thanksgiving. And though due to its sheer size Wal-Mart receives much of this negative attention, it’s not that different at any of other big chain stores.

So this season don’t let the Holiday blues wear you down. Allow the charms and benefits of local culture to rekindle your holiday spirit. Now is the time to act in the name of community and give something back, while at the same time enjoying the holistic benefit of maintaining your shopping sanity.

Shannon Biggs is the Development Director at Global Exchange, www.globalexchange.org. For more information about the benefits of buying locally, see www.buylocalday.org.

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