{"id":7525,"date":"2021-11-02T15:20:11","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T19:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/?p=7525"},"modified":"2023-12-26T15:04:31","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T20:04:31","slug":"2021-shoplocal-matters-more-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oshawachamber.com\/oshawa-chamber-news\/2021-shoplocal-matters-more-than-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"A Message From the CEO: This Year #ShopLocal Matters More Than Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"
I’m generally not one for hyperbole, so please bear with me for a moment. Still, I can\u2019t help reflecting on how the upcoming holiday shopping season will be of “do or die” level importance to so many local businesses.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s sunny and warm outside my window as I write this, so it\u2019s a bit incongruous to be thinking about decking the halls, silver bells, and the like but I have a background in retail and old habits die hard.<\/p>\n
For many years I was in the specialty retail space selling snowboards.\u00a0 Every Thanksgiving weekend would end with me raking the leaves at home, packing up as much inventory as possible into a trailer and heading for the Toronto Ski Show.\u00a0\u00a0 You see, for my business and (I have since learned) many others, holiday shopping made up nearly 40% of my annual gross sales.\u00a0 The Ski Show was our kickoff event in many ways, but the month of December alone constituted 25% of gross revenue every year.<\/p>\n
When I think back to the financial exposure involved with stocking up to alarming limits, once again more or less betting that winter would be snowy and shoppers would be merry and then imagine the impact last year’s COVID restrictions would have had on my business, I’m awash with empathy for those still out there making it happen this year.\u00a0 I admire their resilience and optimism as they head into another holiday shopping season, hoping we’ve arrived at some stable \u201cnew normal.\u201d<\/p>\n