In case you haven’t heard, Saturday is “Small Business Saturday.” Each year American Express, the small, family run credit card company incorporated in Delaware promotes the idea of shopping small. Of shopping local. And while Amex may be an unlikely champion of the small, this Saturday we echo their refrain and proclaim “Don’t leave home without it!”

Sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, two mass orgies of commercial gluttony that epitomize the currents that Via Umbria was born to oppose, Small Business Saturday is Amex’s small of way of incentivizing small business shopping, offering up to $30 in rebates when consumers shop small (and use their American Express card). And as much as we appreciate American Express’ leadership, as owners of the quintessential small, local business we think every day should be Small Business Saturday, which would require a complete reworking of the traditional weekly calendar.

Why small? Small is not inherently good. It’s just harder to be good when you’re big.

Small allows a business to be not just a business but the living out of a dream. That’s hard to do when you spend more time managing your corporate fleet than having dinner with your suppliers, obsessing over reimbursement policies instead of sharing a story with a customer, worrying about opening your next branch instead of enjoying what you have created.

When we relaunched our decade old business as Via Umbria we did so based on a vision. A vision we summed up in our three word tagline – Discover | Savor | Share. And those three ideas, three small words but three enormous and important ideas, drive us every day.

Every day we try to discover something new (and most days we succeed). Every day we savor what the geniuses who are our suppliers and artisans create for us. And every day we have the privilege of sharing those discoveries with you.

And we think that’s a special gift that you won’t find at many other businesses. Because most businesses are just that – businesses. Via Umbria is small for sure (and don’t forget that on Saturday) but it’s not just a business, it’s a mission. We think it’s not business as usual but rather business as unusual.

So come visit us on Saturday. And then come back on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. And then start over again.

Happy Thanksgiving and ci vediamo!
Bill and Suzy