Some Southern Marylanders have been camping outside stores since last night. Other woke up in the wee hours and headed out for shopping. Still others are taking advantage of sales by stopping by stores at different hours of the day:
Shopping locally is not just about helping the owners of these small businesses. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has dubbed tomorrow “Small Business Saturday” in the hopes of getting residents to spend the day shopping in Maryland. A press release sent out by his office says that in the state, 526,663 small employers account for 97.6 percent of the state’s employers and 52.4 percent of its private-sector employment. When we patronize the segment of those employers that are retail establishments for our holiday shopping, we are helping to keep their staff employed.