Christmas countdown

12B • Countdown to Christmas

www.crossville-chronicle.com • Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Countdown TO s a m t s Chri

Only 24 Shopping Days Left!

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The benefits to buying local this holiday season Holiday shopping dominates many people’s free time between the day after Thanksgiving and the final days before Christmas. While many people may shop ‘til they drop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, those days still account for a relatively small amount of the hun-

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Shopping local this holiday season can benefit your community in various ways. dreds of billions of dollars that are spent each holiday season.

Shoppers now have a bevy of options at their disposal as they embark on holiday shopping season. Traditional in-store retailers are still around, and online shopping continues to grow in popularity with each holiday season. But many holiday shoppers are looking to buy local this holiday season, and such a decision can pay a host of dividends for both shoppers and the communities they call home.

• Buying local benefits your local economy. Studies from Civic Economics, an economics and strategics planning firm, found that independent, locally-owned retailers return a far greater percentage of their revenue into their local economies than national chain stores. One such study examined the disparity between revenue

recirculation among independent, locally-owned businesses in Raleigh, North Carolina, versus four major national chains in the city. The former recirculated 51.1 percent of revenue into the local economy, while the latter recirculated less than 14 percent. Similar results were discovered in many cities, indicating that buying local not only benefits local business owners, but also the communities those owners and their customers call home.

• Buying local creates jobs in your community.

One of the biggest ways local business owners in Raleigh recirculated their revenue in the local economy was job creation.

While national chains also create jobs, such jobs only benefit your community if the chains are located within your community. If your local mall is a considerable drive away, chances are the chains

within that mall are not employing many of your fellow community members. Local businesses in your community are more likely to employ residents of your town.

• Shopping local may provide access to more unique gifts. In addition to the economic benefits of buying local, shoppers may find merchandise made by local craftsmen is more unique than massproduced items found on the shelves of national retailers. Recipients may cherish more unique items that they cannot find on their own, and that appreciation may even spur them to visit more local retailers after the holiday season has come and gone, benefiting their own communities in so doing.

• Local business may provide a more personal touch. Buying from national chains has its advantages, but customer service is not always one of them. Should your loved ones encounter problems with their gift that requires assistance, they might be forced to wait on the phone for extended periods of time as they and thousands of others wait for customer service representatives to answer their calls. Local businesses do not deal with nearly the volume of customers as national retailers and, therefore, are capable of addressing concerns more quickly and personally than large chains.

Buying local not only benefits small business owners, but it also pays dividends for their customers and the communities they call home.

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Get creative with gift bags by purchasing solid-color bags and using stamps to dress up the design. This way the wrapping looks like it was customized for each recipient.

Let kids help, as they may have fun adding ribbon or bows to dress up gifts even further.

Set up a dedicated spot to tackle the wrapping. Perhaps you want to wrap everything in one sitting, or maybe you will wrap each gift as you make new purchases. Either way, keeping supplies at the ready and organized can make wrapping go more quickly.

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8C • Countdown to Christmas

www.crossville-chronicle.com • Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Countdown

s a m t s i r h C TO

Only 24 Shopping Days Left!

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Manage your credit this season Holiday shopping takes up a considerable amount of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Shoppers who scour in-store and online retailers in the hunt for the perfect gift annually spend hundreds of billions of dollars during such pursuits, and what they swipe when making purchases could go a long way toward how their new years begin.

Overreliance on credit cards to make holiday purchases can prove crippling once the calendar turns to January. According to an analysis of statistics from the Federal Reserve, the average household consumer debt in the United States was more than $15,700 as of June of 2015. That’s roughly one-tenth the average mortgage debt, suggesting that many consumers are relying too heavily on credit cards when making their purchases.

This holiday season, consumers concerned about swiping their credit cards too often can take the following steps to more effectively manage their credit.

• Know what you can afford. Swiping now and dealing with the consequences in January is a recipe for a rocky new year. In some cases, it can benefit consumers to make purchases with their credit cards as opposed to their debit cards. For instance, when making purchases online, it’s often

safer to use a credit card rather than a debit card linked to your checking and savings accounts, as using the latter can make your life’s savings vulnerable to hackers. But don’t start swiping your credit cards until you know what you can afford. Examine your finances and only use your credit card if you know you can repay the balance before it incurs any interest.

If you can’t pay the balance in full at the time the payment is due, use a debit card so you are only spending money you already have and not taking out what amounts to a high-interest loan on your holiday purchases.

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• Resist retailer cards. When making in-store purchases, chances are the cashier will invite you to sign up for a retailer credit card, even offering an immediate discount if you do so at the registers. While this discount may seem too tempting to ignore, keep in mind that many retailer credit cards come with considerably higher interest fees on balances that are not paid off in full. So that discount at the register may end up costing you more money if you get to January and can’t pay the balance in its entirety.

• Try not to juggle cards. Many shoppers juggle multiple cards to avoid building up too big a balance on one particular card during the holiday season. But that’s an easy way to lose track of how much you have spent.

Rather than juggling cards, use only the one with the lowest interest rate.

• Monitor your balances. Swiping a credit card is easy and hassle-free, and many retailers both big and small now accept various types of cards.

Keep a close eye on your balances, checking them online after each shopping trip. This can help you control your spending and also can alert you to any fraudulent activity.

Shoppers who must use their credit cards this holiday season can employ several strategies to ensure they don’t dig themselves into a financial hole by the end of December.

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Make sure gifts arrive on time Come the holiday season, shipping companies work around the clock to ensure packages, merchandise and more make it to their destinations on time.

What would December holidays be without gifts under the tree?

In 2013, overtaxed carriers failed to meet Christmas deadlines for many packages. Some analysts say big retailers and carriers may have underestimated consumers’ growing reliance on online shopping — especially for last-minute presents. Since those mishaps, both UPS and FedEx have spent millions on upgrades. More fuelefficient planes, upgrades to air cargo networks and improved infrastructure and ground shipping operations have helped shipping companies better handle the increased volume.

As shipping companies work harder to ensure holiday packages arrive at their destinations on time, there

also are things consumers can do to increase the chances that gifts make it under the tree before the big day.

• Shop as early as possible. If you plan to buy online or ship gifts to family and friends, shop early so the gifts have time to make it to their destinations. Make a list of all the people whose gifts you will need to mail, then shop for their gifts first so you will have ample time for them to arrive on time.

• Double-check all mailing addresses. Make sure you have the correct addresses for all friends or family members you will be sending gifts to. An incorrect address can result in packages being returned to sender or floating around in shipping limbo. All of this only decreases the likelihood that gifts will arrive on time.

• Consider a ship-tostore option. A number of big retailers now offer vari-

ous options that allow customers to purchase items online and pick them up in a nearby store. In-stock items may be available the same day, while others may have to be shipped to the store for a later pickup.

• Enter shipping parameters. Signing up for either My FedEx or MyUPS gives you a little extra control over how packages are sent to you. For example, you can request that packages be held at a delivery center or you can presign for deliveries. These perks can help limit some lost or delayed packages.

• Use proper postage.

Bulky envelopes or large packages are better off brought to the post office for shipping instead of mailing them from home.

Inadequate postage could stall delivery of your items and have them returned to you.

• Research shipping cutoff dates. Shipping carriers often list the “last days

to ship” for their services so that packages will arrive by the date you need them. This way you can plan around the cutoffs.

• Sign up for membership programs. Online retailers offer expedited shipping on many products as part of their membership programs. The added cost may be well worth the peace of mind fast shipping provides.

An increase in online shopping as well as families living further apart has led to a high volume of gifts being shipped around the holidays. Plan accordingly so that gifts will arrive on time.

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