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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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In Our View: Shop Local Pays Dividends

Small Business Saturday chance to back merchants who benefit our community

The Columbian
Published:

Admittedly, Small Business Saturday is a contrived “holiday.” Created by American Express in 2010 in an effort to get shoppers to open their wallets to kick off the holiday season, it plays into the consumerism that is a hallmark of this time of year.

But unlike the much-hyped Black Friday or the click-till-you-drop Cyber Monday, tomorrow’s Small Business Saturday is an event that provides year-round benefits for the local community. As Chris Myers wrote for Forbes.com: “Is it really so troubling that small businesses make a momentary appeal for support amidst the suffocating din of holiday advertisements from their larger, more resourced counterparts?” Indeed, it is not. In an age when multinational corporations dominate the retail landscape and when traditional mom-and-pop shops are unable to compete with the vast purchasing power and discount-providing economies of scale from large outlets, it is important to recall the domino effect that comes with buying at local stores.

According to the Small Business Association’s 2014 report, companies with fewer than 500 employees account for 98 percent of all businesses in Washington and employ slightly more than half the state’s workers. Not all of them, of course, are retail outlets, but those numbers highlight the importance of small businesses to the state’s economy.

Furthermore, according to a nationwide study from Civic Economics, of every $100 spent at a local business, $68 remains in the local economy. Of every $100 spent at a large chain, $43 remains in the local region. Purchases from local retailers support local business owners and their employees while contributing to the local tax base; purchases from a large chain support employees and contribute to the tax base, but send part of the money to far-away owners; purchases made online typically provide no local benefits. As Ed Fischer, owner of Camas Bike and Sport, told The Columbian, “If people go buy online from someone back in New York, not a penny goes back into this community.”

And then there are the year-round benefits of Small Business Saturday. While the event is an attempt for local retailers to carve out a niche in the crowded holiday shopping season, the awareness it creates has a lasting impact. For businesses, particularly small ones that don’t have multimillion-dollar advertising budgets, public awareness is half the battle.

Not that Washington is solely reliant upon small retailers. As home to Amazon and Costco, the state will reap benefits from throughout the country this shopping season. And plenty of those fevered shoppers will find respite at their local Starbucks, another Washington-based company.

Locally, hopes are high for a robust season. During the second quarter of this year, from April through June, taxable retail sales in Clark County jumped 15 percent over the same time period the previous year; in Vancouver, the increase was nearly 17 percent. Consumers have demonstrated confidence in the economy, and retailers have benefited from that confidence in a way that supports local jobs and provides local taxes.

Economically, any spending is beneficial to the community, and it is impossible to begrudge shoppers who prefer the convenience or selection that can be found at a large, familiar retailer. But between the flying-elbow chaos of Black Friday and the world-at-your-fingertips serenity of Cyber Monday, we urge Clark County shoppers to take part in Small Business Saturday.

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