Mayor urges Calgarians to shop local during holidays

Mayor Jeremy Farkas takes a stroll down Main Street, Bowness, to highlight the importance of buying from Calgary stores in the run-up to the holidays. As Canadians, as Calgarians, when we shop local, we're supporting our neighbours. So, skip Amazon, let's get out onto our Main Street, regardless of where you live in Calgary, to support our neighbours and these local, amazing small businesses. The Support Local YYC campaign started in 2019 as a celebration of the people and stores that help shape Calgary's communities and economy. It's always good to support mom and pop shops, right? It's always nice to support the little guys. In order for us to grow, right, we want to be like the big retail guys as well, but you've got to start from the bottom, kind of work your way up. So it's always nice to see the local community kind of coming in, buying products, getting haircuts from us. The local business improvement area says it's been a rough time for businesses here, surviving through major water main breaks, repairs. We're excited, we're in the last leg and now we're coming up to the holidays so we're here to encourage folks to shop local this holiday season and visit Main Street Bowness even though there's construction happening. Go and look at your local businesses, your local vendors. We were looking at a bunch of vendors in there. These people are Calgarians. They're putting their artistic works out there and just take a little bit of extra time to go and check out your local vendors and buy for your family locally. The BIA says the holiday shopping season is always... And after so much disruption here recently, this one is more important than ever. Dan McGarvey, CBC News, Calgary.