Kevin Bacon as Melvin Macon
While Shop Indie Local may be new to you, it’s steeped in over a decade of work. The campaign evolved over the years, but the core mission stayed constant — to amplify the importance of supporting locally owned businesses during the holiday season and celebrate the impacts these independents have on their community’s health and wealth.
This post takes a look back at our history and gives a hat tip to the work done by early organizers — when Shop Indie Local was called Shift Your Shopping.
Actor Kevin Bacon supported our Shift Your Shopping for Good promotion in 2013. Thanks to the work of our core organizing team, we garnered amazing media attention through this hilarious video starring Melvin Macon.
“Placing the well-known actor at the center of the campaign is an attention grabber — one organizers hope will encourage more people to shop local. The movement hasn’t been blessed with much star power, says Joe Grafton, chair of the Shift Your Shopping steering committee, but he hopes Bacon’s involvement will prompt millions to reconsider how they spend their money this holiday season — and think about what those choices mean for their communities.” ~ CNN Money
It doesn’t require star power to boost the Shop Indie Local movement, it takes innovation and all of you. Let’s work to gather your community’s energy and ideas to make our next Shop Indie Local Holiday Season the best it can be. Join us!
