Being a local merchant before the pandemic was hard. The tides were against us — from competition from Amazon to the rising cost of rents and labor, it was hard to be a small business in New Hampshire.
But that didn’t stop many people from taking up the challenge, and for that I’m grateful. Small independent businesses — your local restaurant, bakery, gift shop, pet store, salon and music shop — give our community part of its character. It’s the basis for Hippo’s annual Best of Readers Poll. And as we’ve talked about for the past 20 years, these small businesses are what help make this region what it is.
Those small businesses also employ a lot of local people and more of the money you spend with us stays in the area; 73 percent of money you spend at an independent small business stays local versus 43 percent of money spent at a non-locally owned business, according to one recent study. I would guess even less stays local when spending money with Amazon or another out-of-state e-tailer. Locally owned businesses also contribute a lot more money to local charities and pay a lot more in local taxes. This keeps your taxes lower. Spending local makes sense for your community and yourself.
That in-person connection of a Toadstool Bookshop or a Manchester Music Mill or an Alapage or the Bakeshop On Kelley Street or Granite State Candy Shoppe or Palace Theatre or Cheers Bar and Grill has been severely impacted with the limiting of in-person contact throughout the pandemic. It’s like the very thing that gives these businesses their special sauce was yanked right away from them. At the very same moment, their chief competitors like Amazon, Walmart and UberEats got a huge boost by people stuck at home. This is understandable — Amazon is easy and makes a lot of sense when we’re trying to reduce our in-person contact.
What we can do, though, is make an effort to spend some of our money at these local businesses. Since many of our local businesses can’t afford some of the online shopping tools or their service can’t be sold online, our efforts might require us to pick up the phone or if we feel safe enough go down there and use their service. Support your local restaurant by buying a gift certificate or ordering takeout.
Just as we need to make the effort, small businesses need to as well. Consumers can recognize when businesses aren’t reasonably supporting local businesses around them. Just as with consumers it isn’t always easy but with some effort the rewards can be tremendous.
Though it can seem a bit overused, the saying “we’ll get through this together” has the right sentiment. We’ll get through this together by supporting each other.