10/17/2026
I speak for all the small businesses! We need the community, we love our community! Please show some love! We all could use it right now!
I’m going to say something today that is uncomfortable for me to say as a small business owner.
We need you to show up.
Not just for The Chatty Cat Cafe. Not just for The Chatty Cat Closet. For the locally owned businesses in this community that you genuinely want to see here next year.
Because “support small business” has to mean more than sharing our posts, tagging your friends, telling us how much you love what we’ve created, or saying, “I need to come back soon!”
At some point, it has to mean walking through the door.
Small businesses need customers.
We need someone to come grab their morning coffee.
We need the family who wants frappes after school.
We need the teenager who loves boba.
We need someone to wander through the Closet and find their new favorite sweater.
We need people to come hang out with the cats.
And no, we’re not asking you to come every single day.
But think about the places in this community that you would genuinely be sad to see disappear.
Could you choose one of them once a week?
Once a week, skip the corporate coffee drive-thru and come inside the locally owned coffee shop.
Once a week, choose the little restaurant instead of the chain.
Once a week, browse the locally owned store before automatically ordering something online.
Because here’s the uncomfortable reality:
Convenience is winning.
The drive-thru is winning.
The rewards apps are winning.
The free promotional squishy, cup, points, and whatever other random thing a billion-dollar corporation can give away this week are winning.
And while that’s happening, the little businesses everyone says they love are trying to figure out how to keep their doors open.
We can’t compete with billion-dollar corporations on convenience or marketing budgets.
But we can give you something they can’t.
We know your orders. We know your kids. We celebrate your birthdays. We employ people who live here. We donate to local causes. We create events for this community. We take in cats who need somewhere safe to land and help them find families.
We built a weird little place in the mall where you can drink a latte, order a boba, shop secondhand clothes and then go sit in a room full of cats.
And we need our community to choose us back.
So I’m asking plainly today:
Please show up.
Come see us this week.
Get the coffee. Get the frappe. Get the boba. Shop the Closet. Visit the cats. Bring a friend who hasn’t been here before.
And then go do the same thing for another locally owned business you love.
Because if there is a small business in this community that you would be heartbroken to see close someday, don’t wait until the closing announcement to tell them how much they meant to you.
Support them while the lights are still on.
Small businesses don’t survive because a community loves having them.
They survive because a community shows up. ❤️
