Yelp Official Blog: Yelp is Challenging YOU to Shop Local

This year, Americans expect to spend an average of $712 on holiday gifts according to the first Gallup holiday spending survey of the 2011 season.

Starting on November 16th and running through December 26th, Yelp is challenging you to spend your holiday shopping dollars with boutique and specialty neighborhood merchants, by taking the Yelp Shops Local Pledge!

What does this mean?

Think of the Yelp Shops Local challenge like a local economic stimulus program -- one that not only supports your community and keeps your hard earned dollars close to home, but hopefully also results in some unique, one-of-a-kind gifts for friends and fam. Even buying one gift locally makes a big difference in our communities. Yelp is already helping consumers find and support local businesses, so just imagine what sort of impact we can all make if we strive to support local merchants this holiday season!

How can you get involved?

Connect with your community: Any yelper can take the Yelp Shops Local Pledge, and over 30 of our Yelp Communities are spreading the local cheer via holiday markets, stylin’ shindigs, holiday card creations, gift wrapping parties, shopping crawls, community events and more. Check out the list below to see how easy it is to cross all the names off your list...locally! If you don’t see your city listed, check out our Yelp Shops Local Event listing on Facebook or start a Talk thread on Yelp in your area to encourage local shopping.

Plan your list: Who do you need to buy for, and what gifts can you shop locally for? Mom, Dad, husband, wife? What about your postman, doorman, or neighbor? Good thing we have Yelp Gift Guides chock full of great ideas coming out in our communities throughout North America on November 16th.

A little goes a long way: If you can’t break your mouse clicking habit completely (and that’s OK!), pledging to spend even a few bucks still makes a difference. Just think, if even 5% of the approximately 61 million yelpers who came to Yelp on average per month last quarter spent that amount at a local business, that would equate to over $30 million back into local economies.

Spread the word! Download the Yelp Shops Local Pledge graphic above and post it to your Facebook wall or Twitter feed and let your friends and family know you’re taking the pledge.

As 2011 comes to a close, let’s all take the pledge to “Shop Wisely. Give Locally. Yelp On!”