With the Coronavirus pandemic crushing small businesses in 2020 there has been an amazing push to shop small during the holiday season. We’ve all been doing our best to support small and local businesses during the holidays, but we can’t stop there! We need to continue to shop small and help out the small businesses in our towns and around the country in 2021!
Sure, we’d love it if you considered a Fiction Letters series, but we want to encourage you to shop small whenever you possibly can! Before you head over to Amazon or place an order with one of the big box stores, take a second to consider if you can instead support a small business, either in your community or online.
We know it is easy to shop at a huge online retailer or at a superstore, but it is now more important than ever to shop small and local. About 70% of money spent at small businesses stays in the local community. Local residents are employed. Small businesses pay rent to local landlords who pay local property taxes. The businesses use other local services like accountants, plumbers and electricians who in turn employ residents. Buying local and small really does make a difference.
Sure, it may be quicker and sometimes even cheaper to log into Amazon and make your purchase with a couple of clicks. But if you take a couple of extra minutes to find a local or small business you will be helping them survive this extraordinary time.
We all need to be safe when we shop and local and small businesses have upped their game since the pandemic started. Reach out to your local business to see what their purchasing options are. You may be surprised that many in your community now offer in-store or curbside pickup or even free delivery.
I think we can all agree that the last thing we want when we finally get back to normal is a retail landscape dominated by impersonal big box stores. Small businesses add personality and jobs to our local communities and as the calendar turns to 2021 we need to continue to support them. So make a resolution to #ShopSmall in the new year!