The Shop Local Movement is more than a feel-good story. Shopping locally helps keep our families, our friends and our neighbors employed and able to support themselves. Together we can make a difference to our small business owners and our local economy by making this our mission – support, choose and promote Shop Local in the communities of Spruce Grove and Stony Plain. 

Between economic downturn, increasing internet shopping and now Covid-19, the safety nets have been dismantled that most small business owners relied on to get through the usual business lulls - slow months, bad weather, and a fluctuating dollar. The rainy-day savings and other financial cushions small business owners may have had tucked away are getting extremely low or totally depleted in today’s world. One small businesses owner told me before Covid-19 that if he had just five more customers each day dinning at his restaurant, he would be able to rest a little bit easier. Think about that for a moment, that’s how small the profit margins have become for some of our small businesses in these difficult economic times. Therefore, it has never been more important to shop, buy and choose local businesses in Spruce Grove and Stony Plain.

I agree that it is increasingly difficult for all of us whether we are local business owners or not, just trying to provide the essentials for our families is tuff enough. As a local business owner, I’m not asking local residents to spend money they don’t have, but what I am asking is that they think about whether some of their usual purchases could be from local stores rather than the internet? We need to show the small local businesses of Spruce Grove and Stony Plain some love and especially now during the Covid-19 crisis. Let’s show them that we care about their success and that we agree Spruce Grove and Stony Plain wouldn’t be the communities they are without them. Our communities would be lesser without all the small, unique and home-grown businesses we have grown to love and appreciate. Remember the 1980’s shampoo commercial, if you tell a friend and they tell two friends… the same thing can happen when we support, choose and promote the local businesses of our communities.

Locally owned and operated small businesses reinvest hard-earned dollars back into our local economy through employing local residents, by purchasing locally and by paying their city taxes. For every dollar spent in our community, $3-4 dollars or even more is generated for our local economy. So as residents and consumers let’s do our part too. Shopping locally helps keep your family, your friends and your neighbors employed and able to support themselves. Also, every dollar you spend at a local business 68% of that dollar stays in our local economy, versus 43% or less when we spend a dollar at a chain store, and far less when we shop through Amazon.

We must support small business by shopping and choosing local. We need to be local heroes and support even just one local business this year. We are in this together and together we can achieve so much more. I want to encourage all residents, groups, and associations to be passionate advocates for the Shop Local Movement in communities of Spruce Grove and Stony Plain. Our local economy can and will once again become vibrant, but only with everyone’s support.
 

SHOP LOCAL, BUY LOCAL, CHOOSE LOCAL, EAT LOCAL,
PLAY LOCAL, and ENJOY LOCAL

 
Contact – James Pahl
Community Manager: ShopSpruceGrove.com & ShopStonyPlain.com 
Call / Text – 780 953 SHOP (7467)