SUPPORTING LOCAL: Changing the Landscape of Retail

We’ve all heard the same message from our local businesses. “Shop local! Buy local! Support local!” For the most part, we’re receptive to this message. We realize that, yes, our money stays in the community, our neighbours can have jobs, and our community organizations can continue to get donations. But if this message is getting across to us, why are businesses still pushing it?

We aren’t following through! We are still choosing online options. In late 2019, e-commerce retail trade sales escalated to almost 1.85 billion Canadian dollars, with approximately 28.1 million Canadians having made purchases online1. This number is only expected to increase, and with the current global situation, online shopping on big sites seems to be the safest way to purchase our goods.

Or is it?

The most wonderful thing about local businesses are their incredible abilities to adapt. Take the current pandemic for example. In respect of public safety and health, they closed their doors. They closed their doors! Almost all of them continued to pay their employees, recognizing that it’s not the store that matters, but the people within. After realizing that closure was going to be more than a couple of weeks, many stores began to offer alternative ways to interact, view and shop - including embracing technology and e-commerce. When the time came to re-open, they began operating at half capacity, offered curbside pick-up, and/or contactless delivery2. Their online options still continue to be available in tandem with their physical stores, a welcome treat for those of us wanting to support our local businesses, as well as those of us wanting the safety and comfort of online shopping.

The main reason most people chose to shop online, even before Covid-19, was that it was more convenient. With targeted search parameters, finding one item in a stack of thousands is easy. You don’t need to waste fuel or a day of shopping at different stores to get everything you want. What have local businesses just done in the past couple of months? They’ve made it easier than ever to shop local! Their quick adaptations have actually solved some of the issues that pitted them against e-commerce sites. Things aren’t completely solved, and the road ahead is unpaved for our local businesses, but this is a promising beginning. For the rest of us, as consumers, we can benefit immensely. The goods we purchase from local stores are sourced closer to home. As such, they are much safer for us to buy since they have had to travel less. It’s also safer for the environment, since less fuel has been burned in order to transport them. Our choices and purchases at stores close to home tell retailers what we want and how often we want it. Since they are dependent on us to stay open, they are far more likely to listen and serve us better than big box stores. In turn, we continue to buy from them and a genuine community connection is established.

Retail has gone through shifts over the years, and while many have debated that brick and mortar stores would always be at odds with the digital world, our current state of affairs has shifted that. Now it’s becoming easier to support local - we can do it offline and online.

Sources 1) Clement, J. Statista. “Number of Digital Buyers from 2017 to 2024” https://www. statista.com/statistics/245143/number-of-online-buyers-in-canada/. New York: (2020). Web. 18 May 2020. 2)Toneguzzi, Mario. Retail Insider. “Retailers Begin Opening Stores in Canada as COVID-19 Restrictions are Lifted” https://www.retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2020/5/retailers-begin-opening-stores-in-canada-as-covid-19-restrictions-arelifted. Alberta: (2020). Web. 6 May 2020. SUPPORTING LOCAL: Changing the Landscape of Retail

Written By: Michaela Miller