Shop Birmingham–And a Giveaway!

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge proponent of shopping and dining locally.

Alabama has an unbelievable wealth of local merchants, artisans, and restaurants, and the more we support these businesses, the more of our money stays in Alabama and makes it an even better place to live.

I do better dining locally than I do shopping locally, because let’s face it: I have two kids in tow.  Amazon is, on most days, a lot more pragmatic.

However, I’ve found a site that can help me shop locally while being able to shop from my computer – how awesome is that??

Shop Birmingham offers online shopping from many local stores – browsing their online marketplace is so exciting, especially for gift giving!

And, speaking of convenient online shopping, you can buy gift certificates for many local stores online – a great way to support the local economy when you’re running late on buying a present!

But Shop Birmingham is so much more than just that.  They are a resource featuring menus, gift certificates, products, services, and general contact information for many local businesses in the Birmingham metro area.

Also, it’s a great opportunity for local merchants. At no charge whatsoever, they can list their business information and up to five items for sale in the online shop. It’s a great way to get recognized as a local business, and to be able to easily offer online ordering! They also offer more in depth services for a fee, so they can get as much value as they desire out of the site.

But if you’re not in Birmingham, don’t despair! Shop Birmingham is expanding rapidly. They currently have two more sister sites, Shop Mountain Brook and Shop Homewood, and are planning on expanding throughout the state!  Keep your eyes out for a a site near you in the future.

Now for the giveaway part: Shop Birmingham gave me five awesome T-Shirts to give away to you!

AND, as a bonus, the five winners will be put into a drawing to possibly win two tickets to a show at the Alys Stephens Center!

Now – back to the shirts.  They are a great way to remind people of the value of shopping locally – and they’re awesome looking shirts, too. They sell on Shop Birmingham for $20 each, and they wear very nicely – I’ve been enjoying one myself the last few weeks.

AND if you’re not from Birmingham, feel free to still enter!! You can have a souvenir from your favorite blogger’s (ahem) hometown.

I have the following colors/sizes to give away to five of you:

3 Grey Larges
1 Brown Large
1 Brown Medium

If you would like to win one, just comment on this post and tell me which shirt you’d like to have.  But hurry!! This giveaway is only open until Monday, October 31st.

If you’d like extra entries into this giveaway, you can get up to four of them by:

• Checking out ShopBirmingham.com and tell me one thing you like from the Local Marketplace.
• Follow or subscribe to my blog.
• Tweet, blog, OR Facebook about this giveaway.
• Follow me on Twitter OR Facebook

(be sure to leave separate comments for your extra entries.)

Again, this giveaway is only open until Monday, October 31st. The winner will be randomly selected and posted on my giveaway winners page on Tuesday, November 1st.

Good luck!!

Disclaimer:  I was not compensated to write this post.  Shopping locally is an awesome thing to do no matter where you live.  Try it, you’ll like it.