Yesterday was the official “Shop Small” or “Support Small Business Day” ( that we have to have an official day should be a statement in itself but none the less) consumers were wonderful and came into Midtown small business in the droves. THANK YOU!
My question thou as American consumers are we past the need to shop in small business?
For many years as I was in the wholesale end of retail I would predict to my customers that we were moving to only having large box stores…Costco and Walmart with our choices limited to what they selected and now the internet is part of this formula as well. The big stores offer a lot of very little!
In the same way people are requesting “Made in USA” it might be too little too late for the small retailer. It is like people are asking for “Made in USA” but what they don’t seem to grasp is that the production facilities such as our factories are gone, the trained work force has moved on or are unemployed and it will take awhile and many changes in the way we consume to get that cycle reversed.
Buying art or handmade is one way to buy Made in the USA but even that is requiring a change with buying on the internet. I personally prefer to buy my art in person but the chance to buy international artists becomes so much easier than in the past with the internet. Is this the end of brick and mortar galleries?
I hope not!
