Good morning ladies,
I hope you're having a blessed week. Life is busy, busy this time of the year, so I'm very grateful that you have taken time to visit Sew Practical today.
I don't know about your area, but in our area, we would normally see a surge in local patrons at our mall and other local stores with the passing of Thanksgiving. However, I'm not noticing much difference between now and a couple of months ago. There is some pick up to shopping in local stores, but it isn't like it used to be before online shopping started taking over the universe. Don't get me wrong; I love online shopping. My son and I even sell online ourselves. And my family and I have an online order arrive nearly every day. No joke. But I also like to shop at local stores. Our town has lost Kmart, Sears, and Penney's within the last 4 or 5 years because of fewer in-store shoppers, and lots of small businesses that had to shut down during Covid have never re-opened. I am slowly starting to see new businesses open in a few of those closed businesses though, so that's exciting to see.
But this year, visit a local store, even if it's a big-box store. However, I strongly urge you to visit the downtown merchants, too, who have kept the older commerce areas alive once the big-box stores went to shopping malls. They have unique items you won't find anywhere else. Our local downtown shops are a beehive of activity - even when we went shopping during the summer and a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. Local governments have made it fun to shop in these old business districts by adding brick sidewalks and/or old-fashioned lamp posts, etc. It's almost like walking through a Norman Rockwell scene.
Just thinking back to even 10 years ago, big-box stores would be jam packed with Christmas shoppers, and local stores would have to hire more help to stock the shelves and to man extra cash registers. Our local Walmart, Target, and Hobby Lobby stores may have done that; I haven't been to those stores since well before Thanksgiving. We will visit a couple of those stores next week though. But so far, I haven't seen anyone stocking shelves at all at the big-box stores we have visited this week, such as Belk's, Ollie's, and Big Lots. And only 1 or 2 cash registers are open as is the norm throughout the rest of the year. They don't need the additional help since there are fewer in-store shoppers.
Regardless of your shopping preferences, I hope you and your families have a very merry Christmas. Remember to smile more and worry less. That's the best gift to give and receive this blessed time of the year. Jesus taught us that the best gifts in life are free - love, peace, forgiving, kindness, understanding.
Have a nice day!
