FAQ

Shop The Neighbourhood™ is a local shopping awareness campaign that celebrates small businesses all year round, and reminds Canadians how shopping locally makes a difference in our lives and directly impacts the local economy.

What is Shop The Neighbourhood?

• Shop The Neighbourhood is a national initiative of Yellow Pages that aims to increase awareness on the importance of local shopping.
• The campaign encourages Canadians in adopting healthy and sustainable shopping habits by supporting small businesses in their communities.
• In 2016, Yellow Pages celebrated the fourth edition of Shop The Neighbourhood by extending it from a weekend event to a year-round campaign.
• Now, Yellow Pages encourages small businesses to host local Shop The Neighbourhood events year-round, coinciding these with periods of the calendar year relevant to local shopping, such as October for small business month and November, which kicks off the start of Holiday shopping period.
• Shop The Neighbourhood website provides business owners and business associations the resources to help them successfully plan and execute their own Shop The Neighbourhood event.

How do you define “local shopping”?

• Local shopping refers to the action of making a purchase at small independent businesses which provide goods or services to a local population.

What is Shop The Neighbourhood’s history?

• Shop The Neighbourhood was born from the desire to offer Canadians a local shopping alternative on the Saturday between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year, that tend to drive dollars away from Canadian communities. 
• The first edition was held in 2013 in the Greater Toronto Area, and ultimately became national in 2014. 
• From one edition to the other, the campaign evolved and transformed to better reach its objectives and pursue its mission of supporting small businesses and contributing to the local economies. 
• In 2016, Yellow Pages celebrated the fourth edition of Shop The Neighbourhood by extending it from a weekend event to a year-round campaign, in order to raise awareness about the cause amongst consumers and positively impact their shopping habits.
• Today, Yellow Pages empowers local business owners and business associations to host their own Shop The Neighbourhood events.

What has Shop The Neighbourhood brought over the years?

• Over the years, Shop The Neighbourhood has succeeded in bringing together Canadians, local merchants and governments representatives to celebrate the importance of small businesses and their positive impacts on neighbourhood vitality and economy.
• In just one year, more than 12,500 businesses across Canada participated in the event, over 1 million Canadians expressed their support to the campaign by shopping in their neighbourhoods, and $155 million went to Canada’s local economy as a result.

Is there an official event day or week-end for the campaign?

• Every day should be Shop The Neighbourhood day!
• Since the campaign’s inception, Yellow Pages encourages Canadians to vary their shopping behaviours in order to develop more sustainable habits, and support small businesses not just on one day, but year-round. And this is even truer with this year’s edition.
• Shop The Neighbourhood is now officially a year-round event, which means that business owners and business associations can organize events all year long to increase awareness around the cause.
• Yellow Pages encourages business owners and business associations to organize an event around the Saturday between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as it remains one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year, that tend to drive dollars away from Canadian communities. For this occasion, Canadians are invited to “challenge Black Friday” by making purchases at local businesses on the Saturday to show their support, but also make sure that our dollars remain within our borders to stimulate our local economy. 

Why should people support Shop The Neighbourhood?

• Small businesses are our economic backbone: they create jobs, funnel funds back into the community, keep decision-making power localized, and generally contribute to building healthy, thriving neighbourhoods.
• If we all choose to make our next purchase locally, we’re helping strengthen our small businesses and by proxy, the neighbourhoods where we live, work and play.

Why is supporting small business and local shopping important to Yellow Pages?

• For over 100 years, Yellow Pages has championed the growth of small businesses and local economies, through its business operations and community activities.
• Shop The Neighbourhood is a reminder of the importance of local shopping not just for small businesses, but for all of us who call Canada’s neighbourhoods home.

How can I support Shop The Neighbourhood as a consumer?

• Visit www.shoptheneighbourhood.yp.ca to learn about the importance of local shopping, its positive impacts and advantages, and simple ways to support local businesses year-round.
• But to summarize the essence of the campaign: purchase goods and services offered in your neighbourhood and at small independent businesses, rather than at large retail establishments, for the majority of your purchases.
• If we all choose to make our next purchase locally, we’re helping strengthen our small businesses and by proxy, the neighbourhoods where we live, work and play.
• You can also show your support through social media: 
  
  • Join the Yellow Pages Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram accounts where Shop The Neighbourhood content will be featured throughout the year;
  • Facebook: @YellowPagesCa (English and French)
  • Twitter: @Yellow_Pages / @Pages_Jaunes
  • Instagram: @YellowPages_ca / @PagesJaunes_ca
  • Download the free web banners and images provided on www.shoptheneighbourhood.yp.ca to add to your social media accounts; 
  • Follow and use the #shopthehood hashtag.

How can I show my participation in Shop The Neighbourhood as a small business?

• Visit www.shoptheneighbourhood.yp.ca to get access to useful information about how to organize, promote and show your support to Shop The Neighbourhood.
• You can organize a Shop The Neighbourhood event and invite local businesses to participate.
• You can also show your support by putting the Shop The Neighbourhood window cling on your storefront or at any strategic place where customers can see it. To receive the cling for FREE, go to www.shoptheneighbourhood.yp.ca, and click on the Event page.
• Web banners are also available on the official website. Post them on your website to show your local colours. You can also find visuals especially designed for the campaign to add on your social media accounts. 
• You can also show your support by joining the Yellow Pages Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram accounts where Shop The Neighbourhood content will be featured, and by following and using the #shopthehood hashtag.

What are the benefits of local shopping?

• Local businesses create jobs; small businesses are the largest employer group in Canada.
• Local businesses help give communities their identities and also influence neighbourhood desirability and growth.
• Local businesses keep dollars close to home. Dollars spent within the neighbourhood directly benefit the local economy and tend to be re-invested within the community in the form of local employment or the contracting of locally-based supplies and services.
• Local businesses are neighbourhood-oriented. Local business owners and staff share the community’s interests, and are often personally invested in the welfare and future of the neighbourhood.
• Local businesses keep decision-making power close to home. Local ownership means that business operation and activities which may affect the community are made locally, by people aware of the impacts those decisions have on the surrounding neighbourhood.
• Local shopping reduces environmental impact. Supporting businesses close to home reduces commuting distances, motor vehicle traffic circulation and subsequently emissions related with these activities.

Does this mean I should stop shopping at large retailers?

• Shop The Neighbourhood is about shopping locally in your neighbourhood. There are a number of retailers that are thought of as chains but are actually locally-owned franchises, or have a location on a neighbourhood main street that brings foot traffic out. The campaign does not aim to exclude anyone, but to raise awareness on the alternative and more sustainable ways of shopping.

Why are small businesses so behind digitally?

• We’re beyond the days where having an “open” sign in your window was enough to bring traffic through your door. Now, you need to capture the eyeballs of people surfing the web and checking their phones. 
• Three quarters of Canadians will research purchases online but less than half of Canadian businesses have a digital presence. And those who do aren’t always diligent about keeping their information updated either. 
• Businesses may lack time and more importantly resources to devote to familiarizing themselves with digital marketing tools and techniques. They need to have the digital tools available to position themselves in that digital space, and be able to seize the opportunity to convert the consumers’ digital interest into a physical visit. Yellow Pages helps businesses bridge that digital gap, and Shop The Neighbourhood will offer free tips on what small businesses can do to promote themselves.

Tell me about the digital tools this campaign offers and why?

• Shop The Neighbourhood provides small businesses with pre-packaged banners and visuals that can be used on web and social media platforms, such as Facebook. 
• Web banners are available on the official website – www.shoptheneighbourhood.yp.ca; post them on your website to show your local colors.
• You can also find visuals especially designed for the campaign to add on your social media pages. 
• Shop The Neighbourhood will also provide information and digital tools to help local businesses to position themselves in the current digital space, and seize the opportunity to convert the consumers’ digital interest into a physical visit.

Is there any free promotional material that I can receive as a small business to show my support in the campaign?

• A FREE Shop The Neighbourhood window cling can be downloaded for those who want to show their support by putting it in their storefront or at any strategic place where customers can see it. 
• To download the cling for FREE, go to www.shoptheneighbourhood.yp.ca, and click on the “Plan your event” section.
• Web banners are also available on the official website. Post them on your website to show your local colours. You can also find visuals especially designed for the campaign to add on your social media accounts.

Is Yellow Pages organizing any special events to celebrate Shop The Neighbourhood?

• Shop The Neighbourhood has moved from a one-day event to a year-round campaign. This means that we are encouraging cities, neighbourhoods, small business organization or any other entity to organize their own Shop The Neighbourhood day when it best fits in their marketing. 

Where can I find more information?

• Visit www.shoptheneighbourhood.yp.ca for more information or follow Yellow Pages on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, #shopthehood.