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Vermont-based Cabot Creamery Cooperative is urging consumers to shop locally this holiday season through the company’s “Make this Holiday Season Perfectly Plaid” promotion.

Plaid Friday is a concept created in Oakland, Calif., to encourage shopping at local and independent businesses on Black Friday -- the day after Thanksgiving and the busiest shopping day of the year. Cabot’s version of this annual shopping event, “Perfectly Plaid,” asks consumers to shop at local and independent food stores throughout Chicago and the Northeast, including Boston, Hartford, metro New York and upstate New York, throughout the holiday season.

When shoppers buy two or more Cabot items at an independent retailer (single-food stores, co-ops and small chains with 15 or fewer stores), they can go online to the Cabot website, www.cabotcheese.coop/perfectlyplaid, and enter the Cabot UPC from their purchase, where they bought the item, and their mailing address. In return, Cabot will send them a red-plaid reusable shopping bag, Cabot coupons, recipes and instructions on how to get other materials for their communities and schools, all at no charge.

“Our cooperative is owned by 1,200 dairy farm families, and 100 percent of our profits go directly to our farmers,” states Roberta MacDonald, Cabot SVP of marketing. “They understand the importance of supporting small businesses, and this holiday promotion is one of the ways we’re helping independent retailers and consumers during the all-important holiday shopping season.”