A new study reveals that Knoxville stands out as one of the top cities nationwide where residents are most enthusiastic for helping local small businesses.
When people shop locally, small business owners and their families and employees benefit from the revenue and the satisfaction of building meaningful relationships in their community. And around $68 out of every $100 stays local, compared to $43 when shopping at a national chain.
The U.S. Small Business Association (SBA) celebrates and encourages this dynamic through initiatives such as Small Business Saturday, National Small Business Week (May 3-9, 2026), and the Season of Small Business at the end of the year.
But customers and business owners alike use social media to keep enthusiasm thriving year-round. The passion and principle behind shopping local is seen in Instagram posts, as OnDeck discovered in their new study. Some cities and states have hundreds of thousands of Instagram posts.
So, to identify the American places with the greatest #ShopLocal spirit, business lender, OnDeck identified the number of posts tagged #ShopLocal/#ShopSmall[city name] for nearly 500 major cities and calculated the density of these posts per local 100,000 population for each city and state.
The team found that Knoxville ranked number four with a support rate of 42,119 posts per 100,000 local population. Here’s a look at the top 20 cities where shoppers show the most #ShopLocal spirit:
Credit information to OnDeck with a link to the source of the study: https://www.ondeck.com/resources/shop-local
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