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.”
