If the past is any indication, today will be one of the busiest shopping days of the year. That simple thought is enough to make the mouths of shopaholics water, and folks who don’t like crowds to cringe.

Whether you love shopping or hate it, today marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season and with the multitude of after-Thanksgiving sales a great day to start off your holiday shopping on the right foot – at home.

Honestly we don’t care if you buy your loved one diamonds or just a lump of coal so long as you make your purchases here in the Miss-Lou.

It’s not a new argument.

It’s one we preach every year at this time, but we repeat the message because we think it’s vital that we all shop at home.

Doing so is important to our community.

Each dollar that’s spent in local stores turns over several times within our community’s economy.

Those dollars through both revenue at the business and the taxes it creates go to help everyone from the employees in the store to the grocery store owner where that employee shops.

From there it also helps everyone in the community through public projects and services that are funded by tax dollars.

And we’d much rather support our own friends and neighbors with our purchases than to donate that money to some other, anonymous community.

So remember as you make your list and check it twice this season: do us all a favor and shop at home. It’s like giving a gift back to our community.