It’s unavoidable at this point: the holidays are here. Turn on the news these days, and you are hit with information about the supply chain crisis, and everyone from store owners to news anchors begging you to do your holiday shopping early. As you think about gift lists and what to buy your dad this year, please also think about where you are shopping, and how your dollars can make a difference in your local economy.
It’s no secret that the last 2 years have been hard on local businesses. Between COVID lockdowns, worker shortages and now supply chain issues, it has been hard for many businesses to keep their doors open. The economic development community knows that dollars spent at a local business stay in the community at a higher rate than dollars spent at a chain retailer. When you buy a new book from Amazon, hardly any of that revenue stays in your local community, but if you bought your book at an independent bookstore, that money goes back into your local community. And although prices at the big retailers can often be better than those at a local shop, the extra cost is well worth it. When our local businesses succeed, our communities do as well. A few years ago, Think Local Amarillo wrote a great article about the community impact by shopping local. That article can be found here. The New York Times published an article this week about how shifting even a small portion of your holiday shopping budget to local stores can have a big impact in your local economy.
For those of us that care deeply about commercial real estate (which is likely most if not all of you reading this), shopping at a brick-and-mortar store this year becomes even more important. While many retailers were forced to sell online, if they were not already, supporting them at their physical location, rather than online, shows them that people care that they have a shop in your community. Going in to shop likely brightens their day, and if the store is generating revenue, then they will be more likely to renew their lease and keep the store open.
If you can’t shop local this year, there are still ways to support these businesses. Follow them on social media and engage with their posts so that the algorithms show their posts to more people. Word of mouth is often the best marketing for these companies, so tell your friends about the local businesses that you love and encourage them to shop local. Write reviews on Yelp, Google and Facebook to help others find quality businesses.
We hope that this encourages you to shop local this holiday season, even if it is just part of your holiday shopping.
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