Saturday, November 21, 2009
THREE TIMES AS MANY DOLLARS ??
In a column that appeared in Thursday’s News-Herald, the Retail Alliance reported, “For every $100 spent at an independent business, $45 is returned directly to the area economy — more than three times the return gained from dollars spent at a national chain.” It is the local economy that supports local schools, hires local people and offers benefits to local families. If this is true would someone out there please explain how this magic works? Maybe the person who wrote the column. It might affect the way we shop.
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3 comments:
The problem with small retailers is the conditioning of the public to shop in big box stores under the misperception they are getter the best price. Big box stores do in fact export dollars to their corproate office, giving to the community only a sliver of their profit as a token gesture. They canabalize the local market of dollars and quickly starve the competition out of business.
The more insidious aspect is customers using small stores as a "showroom" to examine an article then purchase it on-line. Nearly everyone with a PC is guilty. They willingly cheat the small retailer who has much higher overhead costs like rent, employees, taxes, etc. to save a buck. They proudly boast they shopped this Christmas Season on the internet. Remarkably these same people wonder out loud why so many stores in their town have closed. This Christams Holiday they'll happily click away again, then moan and complain when taxes go up and their downtown is shuttered closed.
Forget about our locals shopping locally. This Friday they will be at the nearest mall, Best Buy, Marshalls or TJ Max. New retailers are frequently warned that people from Suffolk shop elsewhere. The growing list of closed businesses are the proof.
The SNH Mr. Reeves and City Economic Dvelopment Director Hughes believe that retail building space translates to booming sales. I'd like to understand how empty buildings generate retail taxes? The plant closings, job losses, and ever creeping higher unemployment and now the prospect of Obamacare wiping out more jobs makes a bad ituation worse. The gentlemen have eiher had a little too much egg nog, rum cake or are composing a wish letter to Santa?
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