New years are tricky things. They represent new beginnings, resolutions, even hopeful optimism. That is the good news.
Conversely, those days also envelop end-of-year calculations, evaluations, and of course, self appraisal.
For most small and local businesses across our region, the next few weeks will be filled with hope and dread in equal measure. If there is one fervent wish from each of our local shops, restaurants, and markets it is this: Let 2022 be a little bit easier. Each and every one of us can make that happen if we choose to support local businesses in 2022.
The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.
— J.P. Morgan
The Local Challenge
The last two years have been, to use a mild word, challenging. When small businesses weren’t flat out shut down, they were competing against mega stores and corporations for everything from labor to supplies to dollars.
In the wake of the international pandemic and an unrelenting push toward online purchasing, local markets, shops, and restaurants have faced huge hurdles over the last 20 months.
Any yet, many have survived and thrived in no small part to the outpouring of support from the local community. That support has ensured that many of these local businesses survived to enter 2022.
Because Local Counts
Every dollar spent on a local business or product is weighted heavily toward local investment and growth. This fact has been known since the Home Shopping Network first offered deals that only lasted “for the next 20 minutes.”
But how much impact does a local dollar really have? According to recent demographic information, Northwest Ohio alone has almost 350,000 households (not people but households). If each household shifted $10 a week from a national chain or market to a local restaurant or business, that would result in an average of $3.5 million dollars a week.
Because Local Matters
Local businesses have the greatest impact on our communities. Which is one of the biggest reasons we choose to support local. They spend their money locally, their employees tend to spend more locally, and they pay more local taxes through retaining profits at home rather than sending them out of state or even out of the country.
But more importantly, local businesses aren’t just profit driven machines, spending occasional money on local goods and services. They are neighbors, intimately connected to their communities. After all, when their neighborhoods and regions thrive, so do they.
Megamarts and chains, on the other hand, are tenuous. When fickle economic winds blow, they have no problem moving, taking with them their meager economic impact.
2022: The Year to Support Local
Will you join the challenge? Will you support local businesses in 2022? Just $10 a week will have a huge and marked impact on our region. There is no time like the present! You can check out our local community, schools/university, or entertainment calendars or get involved with our local businesses by checking in with our local directory.
No matter how you choose to invest in our region the question will remain: What are you doing local today?
