Ah, the holidays. A time of frantic searching and repeat trips to the neighborhood Sears or Wal-Mart or Barnes & Noble … wait a minute. Are you really shopping at these places? 'Cause if you're nodding your head in agreement, then you've obviously not read the preceding pages of the paper you're currently holding, and for that, I scold you harshly. Bad, bad reader!
But in all seriousness, we didn't spend months and months and months (OK, around six to eight weeks, but it felt like months) scouring the greater Tampa Bay area, finding the best independently owned shops with the coolest stuff, to have you turn around and give your money to some corporate conglomerate. Give us a little credit — we went out of our way to present you with a kick-ass shopping experience, so instead of purchasing those cute, dangly earrings at Target for $10.99, why not drop a few more dollars at Kismat in Dunedin and get some dangly earrings made of real gemstones?
Coincidentally, this Sunday is America Unchained, a day in which the American Independent Business Alliance encourages consumers to shop at locally-owned, independent businesses to maximize the impact of holiday shopping on your local economy.
In celebration of the nationwide event, the Tampa Independent Business Alliance (TIBA) hosts Unchain Your Independent Side, a Friday night celebration of Tampa's independent businesses. Scheduled activities include a wine tasting by Tampa Bay Uncorked; a sampling of culinary creations by Chef Blitz of Mise en Place; and a screening of Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop. This 80-minute documentary follows filmmakers Hanson Hosein and Heather Hughes as they hit the road and traveled through 32 states in search of "Independent America," abiding by two simple rules: 1. No interstates; they traveled via secondary highways and country roads only; and 2. They did business with nothing but mom & pop shops. No McDonald's. No Best Westerns. And definitely no Wal-Marts.
Unchain Your Independent Side, 6:30 p.m. Fri., Nov. 18. $30. Mise en Place Restaurant, 442 W. Kennedy Blvd., Suite 110, Tampa, 813-254-5373. For more information about events in general, call 813-961-8388.
This article appears in Nov 16-23, 2005.