Forget Black Friday, It’s Time for Red, White & Blue Friday

We spend so much time working like hell to spend so much money buying worthless crap made in China to impress people we might not even like. This year, let’s skip the sweatshop goods and buy local to make Christmas truly great.

You’ve got a few bucks to spend, you want to get something that’s really special, well newsflash! America has that in spades.

You don’t need to seek landfill-quality goods from abroad to make this holiday season special. You can spend the same amount of money and get American made goods to make an even bigger splash, and here’s how.

Etsy.com — Made in America

Etsy offers artisan-made products from around the world, but you can buy specifically from the United States by clicking on the Made in USA tag. These are individuals running very small businesses, working to sell products around the world, proving that great goods can be had even here in America and to Americans.

BuyAmericanMart.com — Probably Made in America

Their disclaimer is careful to point out that they don’t guarantee that goods bought through the site are indeed made in America, they’re doing a better job by a damn site than Target, Walmart or even Bon-Macys, who sells meat thermometers for $39.99 you could get elsewhere from the same Chinese source for about $7. Check them out at BuyAmericanMart.com.

Local Family Restaurants

Forget the gift cards to Red Robin or Olive Garden. There are about as many locally owned restaurants in your neighborhood as there are mega-corps. Go down to the local bistro or diner and get a gift certificate from them and give it instead.

It’s a great experience, it supports local business, and it might just lead to a new long-term customer for that company.

Everybody loves a massage

Imagine that. Imagine a massage. A professional, licensed massage practitioner poking knuckles into your tired and defiant delts. As sure as you’d like that, your family will as well. Local massage practitioners are likely to charge as low as $40/hr down to even $25-30/hr on gift cards, and you can support local businesses by doing this.

Cessna Flight Over Your (Thier?) House

When I first became a professional adult, I bought a gift certificate for my brother and his wife to fly up over their city, see their house, and see where everything else was. They loved it.

It wasn’t until the next year I got to talk to him again, but he ranted and raved about how cool it was to fly over his neighborhood with such a rare perspective. This is a very fun way to share a truly unique experience while supporting local businesses and workers with your family.

Ink Unclusion

Buying goods from America puts money back in American pockets. We’re spending hundreds of billions buying from abroad while we have better, more interesting goods right here at home, and buying them helps our friends and neighbors, rather than multi-national corporations.

And if you don’t believe me, let’s take a look at what FOX News’ John Stossel has to say. He says “Why Buy American is a Dumb Idea“, but then again, his Wikipedia controversy page is longer than my entire bio. Guess that means Stossel worships a power higher than patriotism.

And the Ayn Rand Institute says that buying American is actually un-American… ah yes, only they could come up with that.

Between Stossel and the Rand institute, I’m convinced buying American is a great idea. Let’s forget Walmart on Black ThursFriday and shop from those working here at home instead, for a change. Our nation needs it, since manufacturing has been so largely shipped overseas to those working in near-slave environments.

Comments welcome below.