By: Ester Venouziou
In the newspapers and on the television these days, the economic outlook is gloomy.
It’s so bad, the University of Florida says, that their survey shows Florida’s consumer confidence index dropped 3 points in June. What that
means, they say, is that we’re not feeling confident in the economy, so we won’t be shopping much.
Here’s what we have to say: UGH. Enough of all the negative talk. Yes, economy, right now, pretty much sucks. We don’t mean to trivialize the
facts: unemployment is at an all-time high, or close to it; home sales are picking up, but are still quite sluggish. But that doesn’t mean we have to
just accept all gloom-and-doom and sit back, waiting for our economy to crumble even more.
We can choose to continue on a downward path, back into a recession; or we can choose to head toward a recovery by investing back in our local
businesses — investing back in our communities.
Lots of factors are not in our control. But there is one thing most of us CAN do: Go shopping. Even if you have just a few dollars to spend.
Here is the plan, a “pay-it-forward” sort of thing. Our challenge to you:
- Go to your favorite local, independent business and buy something for $10 (or $5 or $20 or $100).
- *** and this is an important one *** Ask the business owner to promise to spend that money back in the next 24 hours at another local, independent business.
The Greater Tampa Bay area has an estimated 4 million residents. If just half of us spends $10 each, that’s $20 million that will be circulating in
our local economy. For this to work, the money needs to be spent at an independent shop. Think Dairy Inn or Stella’s Deli, not Five Guys; ArtPool
Gallery or China Finders, not Pier One.
No, this won’t solve all our problems. But it might be a quick confidence boost we seem to so desperately need.
You can find more than 1,500 local, independent shops on LocalShops1.com.
Tags: 20100811
LocalShops1.com you have a great idea – let’s make it happen!
This reminds me of the story of a Fox and a Pig that go to market to sell their goods. The Fox is selling baked potatoes. The Pig is selling jelly do-nuts. Both are anxiously waiting for their first customer. Pig is getting hungry, so he goes to Fox to ask about a baked potatoes. Fox tells him that for him he will sell it for a nickel. So Pig pays Fox the nickel and returns happily eating his hot potatoes. A little later Fox is getting hungry, so he walks over to Pig and asks how much the do-nut is. “For you, Pig, it will be a nickel.” So Fox buys a do-nut. This continues throughout the day until both nothing to sell. They were very satisfied with themselves until they count the profit. Only one of them has a nickel. The other has nothing. How can this be? We sold out of everything!
But…I still like the concept! Any Pay It Forward plan is a good one!
Brenda: Thanks!!
Sabine: Hee hee. Hadn’t heard that one