As you all may know by now, I am an advocate of supporting local and I’m always rooting for the small business owner. Some of you may have heard of the Make Your Money Matter campaign, which is bringing awareness to utilization of local credit unions. I personally do not use a credit union for my banking needs, however, after educating myself, I am strongly interested in doing so. Did you know that all of the money made by credit unions goes back into the community? Credit unions are owned and operated by its members instead of bank stockholders. I also learned that since they operate as nonprofits, credit unions are often able to offer higher interest rates on savings accounts/CDs and lower fees on credit cards/loans than corporate banks. Um, sounds great, doesn’t it? Yes and yes. Worth looking into, for sure.

Also, did you hear today is Small Business Saturday? Small Business Saturday has been an annual event, held the Saturday after Thanksgiving, since 2010 + of course, I am a big supporter. I encourage all of you to go + support your fave local communities’ small businesses whenever you can.

I present to you a list of just a few of my favorite places that you could stop in today, tomorrow, or the rest of the year and shop + dine local in Columbus: