NOW this … by Spence
NOW this … by Spence
YOU must be the difference.
I’m writing you with urgency.
As each day of the pandemic passes, the beating heart of America — small business — beats a little weaker.
There is no corporate bailout slush fund, no backdoor Wall Street political connection to stay afloat. Washington leadership squabbles, concerned more with pointing fingers than helping the people they claim to serve. Nationwide, cases surge and lockdowns return, each representing one of the metaphoric Four Horsemen depending on your point of view. Vaccines — and with them, a prayer to end this madness — lie just beyond the horizon, yet still too far to counteract the crippling effects COVID has wrought upon us.
Since the pandemic began, almost 100,000 American small businesses have closed. Permanently. If this number — where each represents someone that poured their heart and soul and courage into chasing the American dream — doesn’t break your heart, check your pulse.
Our community — every community — relies on small business. Entrepreneurs cut our hair, pour our drinks, sell us our ski and snowboard equipment and print our local papers. They create jobs. They represent the very best of free market capitalism. Without them, we will crumble.
I understand how easy Amazon is. One-click shopping, instant search results and two-day shipping sends us down a rabbit hole of online shopping. But Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is currently on track to become the world’s first trillionaire (with a T) by 2026. Amazon will also rake in $0.42 of every dollar spent this holiday season. Let these numbers sink in. Bezos, and Amazon, represent the very worst of free market capitalism.
This isn’t a diatribe about online shopping platforms. This is a plea. Small business owners have been backed into a corner, following rules from a government that has abandoned them in their most dire time of need.
This holiday season, our small businesses are depending on us. A dollar spent locally is a dollar earned locally, and that isn’t cheap talk. When you shop and spend at a local business, you help keep the cycle going.
Shopping at big box stores is easy, but shopping at small businesses is critical. You might need to drive to a store for curbside pickup. You might need to search a little harder for that thing you want. You might even need to pick up the phone and speak to someone, which is something humans still do from time to time.
Who knows? You might even be the difference.
A graduate of St. Bonaventure University, Spencer Timkey is an Ellicottville native who works at The Boardroom Snowboard Shop. An ardent supporter of small business, he writes on retail, lifestyle and local business.
