There are ways to avoid the mall this holiday season, support local stores and artists, and still buy gifts for everyone no your list.  Oakland Unwrapped, in collaboration with Jack London Square, ProArts, adn Oakland Grown, is putting on a “mall-ternative” shopping event, Holiday Buy Night, on Thursday and Friday, December 10th and 11th, from 5 to 10 PM.  From pet lovers to food lovers, fashionistas to athletes, women, men, children, and everyone in between, Holiday Buy Night promises to have something for everyone on your list.

If you need a shopping break, be sure to check out the music and live entertainment going on throughout the evening.  Have the young ones check out the kids section for games, arts and crafts, and a movie.  And if you get hungry or thirsty, be sure to check out the “food court” at the event.  Restaurants from Jack London Square will be selling food, including Kincaids, Cocina Poblana, Ben and Jerry’s, and others.  Awaken Cafe will provide coffee and hot chocolate and Numi and L’Amyx will provide hot tea to keep you warm and alert while shopping.  There will also be a beer and wine bar, featuring the East Bay Express’ holiday lager!  This is one shopping event you won’t want to miss this December!

Save the date!  Add this event to your Outlook Calendar here.

Interested in volunteering?  See below:

As the holiday season approaches, we all want to show how much we love our family and friends by impressing them with gifts on the top their wish list. Yet, I urge you to resist the temptation of spending outside your means. The easiest way to spend only what you can afford- make a budget and STICK TO IT!

Before you hit the stores plan out what type of gift you would like to get each person on your list. Then comparison shop online for the cheapest options. There are many small businesses in the Bay Area that have amazing deals on locally made products. To view over 160 local stores click here. The more planning you do BEFORE you set out to shop, the more likely you will follow your budget.

Here are a couple tips from nonprofit financial literacy site, www.feedthepig.org:

• Many stores offer one-day or weekend money-saving sales during the month. Plan to shop your favorite stores on these days.
• Don’t be tempted to overspend on last minute purchases. Planning ahead could prevent night-before emergency shopping trips.
• Exchange favors as gifts or make handmade gifts such as baked goods and ornaments. A great online gift-exchange site is www.elfster.com.
• Send e-cards. Savings could be significant depending on the length of your mailing list.
• Pay with cash whenever possible. Interest charges accrued by not paying off your credit bill in January may offset any savings you received.

During one of the busiest shopping times of the year, we at OneCalifornia Bank and Foundation have been reminding our friends and colleagues to shop local and support small, independent businesses as much as possible.  Supporting local businesses keeps money cycling through the area and contributes to community development.   

When you shop at locally-owned, independent businesses, more money is kept in the community because local businesses are more likely to buy from local suppliers, and service providers.  In fact, the most conservative studies indicate that for every $100 that you spent at a locally-owned independent business, $68 of those dollars gets re-spent in the community.  That’s $25 (58%) more than if you spent it at a chain headquartered in another city.

The OneCalifornia team isn’t the only one singing the praises of shopping locally.  There is an entire movement centered on shopping locally and supporting small, independent businesses.  Some of these national organizations include BALLE and AMIBA.  Here in the Bay Area, Oakland Grown, Buy Local Berkeley, and SFLOMA are great resources.  Want to learn more?  See the list of 10 reasons to support local businesses on the Oakland Grown website.

What are some ways to shop local this holiday season?  Of course, the foundation’s Oakland Unwrapped! website makes it really easy, where you can shop online from over 160 locally-owned stores and artists - great for late nights and cold days when you prefer to shop online, but want to keep your money local.

We are also hosting a big, festive shopping event on December 10th and 11th to bring all of these shops and more together in one place.  Organizations like the Crucible are also hosting shopping events and many Oakland neighborhood shopping districts are hosting strolls, parades, discounts and later hours  to allow you the chance to shop there instead of at the mall.  Most of these shopping events feature live musical entertainment, fun kid activities, and food from local restaurants, so there are plenty of reasons to check them out!  The Oakland Grown website lists Oakland Shopping events, and we’ve been blogging about upcoming shopping events as well.  There are plenty of resources out there to help you shop local–so make it your holiday shopping resolution to support your local economy by shopping locally!  In fact, we encourage you to take the Oakland Grown pledge to try to do all of your shopping with locally-owned independent businesses and artists.