The annual holiday shopping tradition that gets communities everywhere out in support of their favorite small businesses is almost here! Small Business Saturday happens this Saturday Nov 24, all over the Quad Cities! The 4th Annual ‘That Dam Shopping Trip’ includes twelve different local stores and stops on both sides of the Mississippi. Grab your Shopping Guide at any participating businesses and receive a stamp at each stop. Once your guide is completely filled with stamps, turn it into any of the locations involved (with your contact info) and enter for a chance to win $1,200 in gift certificates!... Read More

To say Rock Island made a colossal error in wasting $15 million to woo Walmart to 11th Street is a stunning understatement. But what’s perhaps saddest and most pathetic about it is its irony. Rock Island, like thousands of other cities across the country, will, at least once a year, pay lip service and throw promotional money at “small business weeks” and hollow pitches to “shop local.” City officials should’ve heeded their own advice in this matter. Aside from the property owners who were able to hit a stunning jackpot on selling their failed and crumbling 11th Street businesses at... Read More