Peter Rose is a second-generation owner of Chelsea Menswear and Willow Tree Fashions located in Downtown Wyandotte.
It was almost 20 years ago that a few switches were flipped in this head. “Big Box Swindle” by Stacy Mitchell changed everything for me. The book focused heavily on the negative impact on the retail landscape (and society itself) by the proliferation of Walmart and all the other “Big Box” concepts.
I enjoyed reading about how vile a company Walmart is, taking stock market money and using it to put all competitors out of business in small town after small town, all across America. (It was and surely has to be still their mantra). But I became increasingly aware of how broad and deep the assault was on the niche stores that served local communities. Not just Walmart, not even close. It was everywhere.
Somewhere along the line, Wall Street di
scovered retail. As all of the manufacturing capacity of America was being offshored, sending thousands and thousands of jobs to points elsewhere, the idea of publicly traded corporations taking over what had forever been locally owned began its assault. Independent retail was blindsided as mall developers transformed the landscape of America, and national chain after chain filled them up. That process of transformation from local to national only feels like it was overnight in retrospect. It took a decade, during which time countless local and private businesses closed up shop. Small companies (like Chelsea) were the mainstay at first, but within that decade, almost all of us were gone. I couldn’t see what was happening. I was too naïve to grasp it all.
It’s important to see this development for what it is: National equals out of Michigan, based elsewhere. National takes a big percentage of the money taken in at their stores, directing it to their accounts back at wherever their home is. It’s what they do, it’s their business model. Think about how that model works, siphoning as much money as they can to their headquarters, to stockholders and executives, to expenses incurred at other businesses in other states! Compare that model with what used to be the only reality, with so many more local and independent businesses dotting our landscape: ALL the money stays local. ALL THE MONEY STAYS LOCAL, circulating and rippling like a stone in a pond. Because indie owners love supporting other indie owners, and DO, shunning national replicant stores that offer less service and are not being engaged in the communities they serve and are patronized in.
It’s very easy for me to go off on this tangent, doing something very close to lecturing. It’s not (it’s urgency), because these so-called dots I’m laying out for connection are VERY often not thought of that way. The dots don’t get connected. So in far too many cases, the way things work is never really thought of that way. I didn’t always, either. I didn’t see the bigger picture, and I didn’t make conscious decisions to deliberately direct my spending dollars to where they do the most good, and not just for the businesses, BUT FOR ME. Once I learned, I couldn’t UNLEARN.
FOR ME means FOR YOU as homeowners. The more vibrant a community is in terms of money being spent IN that city on any given day, the higher the property values are. More importantly, by far? The more citizens who understand this and see themselves as part of the symbiotic whole of a city, the more attractive the city.
In the early days of my localism education, I learned that 3 ½ times more money stays in any local community with purchases made at local and independent stores, compared to national corporations. It’s hard for me to monetize that statistic, but I understand the multiplier as being BETTER for our local communities. Like I said, I know this. It is a real struggle to know this yet still decide to send my money away to parasite companies trying their best to siphon our money out for their own good, anywhere but HERE. I’d have to deliberately TRY to do that, so I don’t.
People have to truly get this to believe it. It’s not good enough for me to say it; you, the reader, have to say it for it to mean anything. I LOVE it when visitors to my store tell ME why shopping local is so important to them. In a world where internet purchasing keeps growing on a daily basis (making all the facts and figures in my head wrong), each individual is critically important. Each purchase at indie stores is appreciated and valued. We get sincere “thank yous” when we do, and THAT feels good to me, too. Knowing that my purchase really mattered.
I wrote articles like this for 84 straight months in a local publication (it has been a while). I remember writing about an all-or-nothing example of how important each of us is, and I’ll finish up with it: Think about all the business done in YOUR city on any given day. Knowing what a high percentage of diverted business is done that day, imagine if for that one day, 100% of the business that was done in your city was DONE in your city. The effect would DAZZLE every business, wouldn’t it? It would overwhelm, matter of fact, in a very good way. (Remember, all that money stays local!). Now do a simple flip of the switch, and imagine the reverse: On that day, 100% of the business done by citizens of this hypothetical city LEAVES the city. And now, imagine that being the reality each and every day. I’ll take the first example, thanks.
Find and listen to “People Have the Power” by Patti Smith. Each of us has enormous power. We just have to believe it and act accordingly.
Happy Holidays to all!