The Capital Region Independent Business Alliance

What’s the challenge?  Make Black Friday GREEN! Take the holiday dollars you plan to spend this year – especially on Black Friday – and focus on spending them with local retailers and restaurants. We’re creating a free, on-line directory of local retailers and restaurants at CapitalRegion.com, so whether you’re a retailer or a consumer – we want to hear from you today at CapitalRegion.com!  Its free, it’s easy, and it’s waiting for you now.

Consumers – Fill our our on-line form for consumer information, and we will notify you as local shopping info develops this Christmas.

Retailers – Fill out our on-line form for retailers, and we will add your information free of charge.

How does this make the day Green, you ask?  Great question!  This works for all of us in two big ways.

For the economy – Green is also the color of money, right? Every dollar we spend at locally owned, independent businesses returns 3 times more money to our local economy than one dollar spent at a chain or a big box giant.

The bottom line is this – how your spend your money makes a real difference for all of us, no matter who you are.  Take five minutes today and do your part at CapitalRegion.com.

So, how does that make Black Friday Green?  Two ways.  First, green is the color of money.  Money spent at locally owned businesses creates 3 times the return in the local economy than dollars spent at chains.  Second, independent, community-serving businesses are people-sized. They consume less land, carry more locally-made products, locate closer to residents and create less traffic and air pollution.  What’s greener than that?

“But, it’s hard to find the gifts I want to buy at local businesses,” you say in, let’s be honest, a whiny tone.  Not any more, we are launching a local directory just in time for Christmas shopping on Nov 23rd – 4 days before Black, I mean, Green Friday at CapitalRegion.com.

“But, how can I help?” you ask, now in a much better tone.  Go to www.capitalregion.com.  If you are a retailer, send us your info to make sure we include in our directory.  If you are a consumer, just sign up to receive alerts and other updates.  Follow us on Twitter.  Find us on Facebook.  Come on people now….

Stacy Mitchell addresses the group at Carmine's Restaurant (Credit: Anthony Cresswell)

CRIBA is off to a great start, and we owe it all to you. The response from the Stacy Mitchell breakfast last Friday was great.  Sixty-five people attended to hear Stacy speak about how we as residents, owners, employees, and activists can work toward substantive change. We thank everyone for attending, especially Mayor Jerry Jennings, who gave an impromptu speech, excerpts of which are here.

To Carmine, Armand and the wonderful staff at Carmine’s Restaurant, we say thank you for rising so early and so high for the event. To Paul and Pat from Talk 1300, we say thank you for spreading the word and broadcasting live that morning. To CRIBA’s founding board, we say thank you for your support, in all its different forms. And to Stacy Mitchell, we say thank you for writing Big Box Swindle and for being such a strong voice for true change.

Following the event, we took Stacy to WRGB Channel 6 in Schenectady where she was interviewed by Liz Bishop on the noon news broadcast. Stacy’s segment immediately followed news of the federal government’s $700 billion bailout of the mortgage industry. This juxtaposition emphasized the rationale for doing business with local vendors during the current economic crisis.