He is a little op-ed from two years ago featured in the December 2015 printed version of The Current. . . we still feel the exact same way!
Current Thoughts December 2015
I have to be honest with you guys. Up until this moment (Saturday 11/28/15, late morning), I had absolutely no idea(s) as to what I was going to write for this December intro.
November was such a great month for us at The Current. We put out what we thought was our best issue to date. We organized the inaugural Sanford Beer Week. We then hosted and/or attended almost all of the events for Sanford Beer Week. We also put on the Beer Week finale: Sofas and Suds!
With the events, our real jobs, and then Thanksgiving also thrown in the mix… it was tough last week to even think about December much less create a magazine in less than a week’s time. Personally, I am beat. I am getting older, and slower, and starting to succumb to gravity. Parts of my body hurt for no reason what-so-ever. Factor in the effects of a very full beer week and my usual amount of ADD and well, again, ZERO ideas on what to write about…
That is until today, Small Business Saturday, November 28.
I awoke today excited about it. Excited to participate, excited to see everyone checking-in and tagging themselves at their favorite locally-owned establishments (see this month’s Sanford-Centric!). Excited that this town’s recent big gains in civic pride were surely going to make this year’s SBS the best one ever!
Then, I got to thinking, and then to over-thinking (uh-oh), and then it dawned on me just how counter-productive Small Business Saturday might probably turn out to be!
Sure, it is a day to bring awareness to small businesses during the peak of shopping season. For that, we are appreciative and will certainly take whatever help we can get. But, based on the posts, the foot traffic, and the amount of cars still at the mall that day (I often stalk the mall and mall restaurants with drive-bys to get a look at where all of the local dollars are going), I got the feeling that a large majority of the people enthusiastically participating were the same people that are already active in the local scene year-round.
Sure, there may have been a segment of the population that did in fact go out of their way to shop local that day, and that is what we go after, of course. But then what happens? In their case, most of them most likely felt they did their part for the local community and now they are clear to shop at the major retailers, with their consciences cleansed, for the rest of the season. It almost becomes an act of charity, throwing the Mom-and-Pops a little bone, one time during the season, before heading right back to the chains for the bulk of their shopping needs.
So maybe it is time to try to get them to shop local more than once now?
This is going to be another long and hard battle to fight, another chicken-and-egg scenario. We need more shopping options in our downtown to lure more people to shop. We need more people shopping downtown to lure more shops. Who is going to give in first? Businesses aren’t going to set up shop in an area that isn’t going to generate the revenue to sustain it. The ones that do take the risk are signing up for tough existence of trying to keep the doors open until the “good times” arrive. It’s up to us to make our Downtown as inviting an environment as possible for future small businesses to be able to set up shop. It’s up to us to generate the foot traffic (the eggs!), to warrant more and varied small business (the chickens!).
Our Downtown has come a long way in recent years, and we have some great pieces in place to build on. But, unfortunately, we need to press the pedal a little harder now rather than let up on it. That too is up to us.
It’s also up to us to not settle for ONE DAY a year where it is “neat” to visit a small business. We appreciate Small Business Saturday and the new people it may have brought to our area, but we can’t sit around for another year until the next one. Do I think we can get people this holiday season, or next, to do a bulk of their shopping locally? Of course not. But do we stop aspiring for that to happen someday? Of course not. In the meantime, I propose that EVERY Saturday is Small Business Saturday, year round, with our focus being on our downtown. There are many groups locally already doing it under various hashtags and across the various shops, delis, bars, and restaurants in downtown. It’s there, it’s ready, and it’s poised to get even better by this time next year. When the next national SBS comes around in 2016, let’s show them something they will want to come back to more than once!
One hashtag Sumalee left out… #tryhardersanford. Somebody has to do it.