Confession: I spent Black Friday at a mall in Roanoke, Virginia. From the lady who can’t shut up about buying local, that may strike you as just a titch hypocritical, never mind the extenuating circumstances that this was my daughter Ella’s requested birthday outing and that I repentantly spent a couple hours at an indie bookstore on Shop Small Saturday.

But let’s be real for a second. Everyone shops online, at chains, and at big box stores. It’s almost impossible not to. The steady stream o...