COLUMBUS (WCMH) — One Columbus resident wanted to shop local during the holiday season but had a hard time finding businesses, so she took matters into her own hands.

Jennifer Crowell, 49, created a Google spreadsheet filled with local businesses, saying she had the desire to shop local but found it difficult to find local vendors. She soon discovered that other residents felt the same.

“People had posted some messages, like let’s support our local businesses for online shopping this holiday season and there was a really great thread about it. And then a couple of us were complaining that it was really hard to find local businesses and know what they sell,” Crowell said, before adding, “And there really isn’t a place to see that sort of information. So we said, let’s get a massive list going.”

Crowell said the spreadsheet started off small with only 50 businesses, and finding those vendors was difficult.

“We all want to support local businesses, but OK how, who are they, what do they sell. It’s a challenge to find that information. It takes a lot of research,” she said.

With the help of local residents and Reddit users, the list is constantly growing and evolving.

“It’s grown from 50 to about 150. Now, we’ve got 300 things on there.”

She also gave praise to the moderators of the Columbus subreddit who pinned the list to the top of their page, making more users aware of it. She said once that happened, the list took off from there.

Although the spreadsheet is a great resource and interesting to make, it’s an activity that takes up most of her free time when she is not working at her full-time job, as a medical coder.

“It’s been consuming all my free time. I should be doing some online classwork, but this has been so interesting and educational,” Crowell said.

She also added the list has helped her expand her horizons and to find other shops beyond her neighborhood. Crowell did her holiday shopping through the spreadsheet and has found a couple of vendors she really enjoyed, saying it felt amazing to support the community.

“It feels a lot better to get package[s] from a local business, instead of another Amazon package.”

She went on to share her goals for the spreadsheet, “I would hope that at one point, we would have maybe a website that you can search for specific items and have some results back of local businesses, says Jennifer.

Jennifer and I had a short chat about the spreadsheet and the items included. Watch the clip above to learn more.

Click here to view the spreadsheet and submit suggestions here.