LIZ SWAINE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY DOWNTOWN SHREVEPORT DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
As this column appears, we Louisianans are coming to the end of an eight-week state stay-at-home order. Many of my friends are taking the risk of COVID-19 seriously and have drastically changed their lives to avoid people and places. Some have gone so far as to stop all in-person shopping and have been ordering groceries, pet items and toiletries for home delivery. In-person shopping has been, for all intents and purposes, dead.
Our small and local businesses, restaurants, watering holes, retailers and events are reeling and are scrambling every day to make head or tail of the so-called “new normal.” Their resilience has been remarkable. I have watched them change their business models — sometimes multiple times — on the fly, ramp up their online presence and launch new products and delivery services.
Some have temporarily shut their doors to save money to be able to come back and fight another day. Others are using the time without customers to paint, make improvements, move into different spaces or tweak their menus. They are committed to making things work when they are finally allowed to do so, but their hopes, dreams and goals will fail miserably without our direct, speedy help.
I was reading recently that it takes 18 days to two months for people to form a habit. How many times over the past eight weeks have you ordered something online from outside of our area? Ordering online is both deceptively easy and incredibly dangerous. Every time a website with products from the other side of the world makes a sale, a local business does not. There is no rocket science formula needed to determine that limited dollars can be spent there or here but not both. This is not xenophobia. It is self-preservation.
We, as a country, have become very dependent on the products and good will of others. We regularly source pharmaceuticals, protective equipment and needed items in our critical supply chains from other countries, countries that may only be our friends when times are good. If COVID-19 has done nothing else, it has held these glaring weaknesses up for all to see. If the pandemic encourages our country to bring critical manufacturing back home, forces us to source items from places that are true friends and allies, and causes us to re-think supply chains, we will be the better for it.
You and I may not be able to force large manufacturing to bring assembly lines home, but there are other equally crucial things we can do. Just as we want the U.S. to be strong and resilient, our local community must be able to weather storms, too. For the good of our communities, as our businesses begin to open, we need to move quickly away from any online shopping habits formed while sheltering in place and begin to support local. Local businesses that open will have safety protocols in place so that you can go, shop, eat and enjoy events. If you are uncertain about venturing out, many businesses — from restaurants to retail to local artists with virtual galleries on Facebook — will sell to you from afar and mail or deliver your goods. Just as you will be supporting local businesses, you will be supporting local governments for whom sales tax revenues pay to pave streets, pick up garbage, keep parks open, and for the salaries of police and firefighters.
When you are thinking of purchasing something online, like that net that makes any table a ping-pong table (that I ordered and never arrived), a steering column bearing (that looked good but was completely nonfunctional), trendy clothing (that was sewn badly, made of cheap material and had crooked hems) or any of the many goods that chase you around the Internet, please take a breath and reconsider. Let’s spend our money instead at local businesses that support our neighborhoods and cities, our community and our country. If we don’t support them, I don’t know who will.
THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN THE May 15 ISSUE OF FOCUS SB - THE INQUISITOR.