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Local merchants hope Buy Something Local
Day boosts small and hurting businesses

UNBAILED-OUT: KO Atelier Boutique’s Suzanne Dyson

by CHRIS BARRY

While it may seem obvious, if you want to do something positive for the local economy in these tough economic times, probably the best, most direct thing you can do is start buying your crap from local independent merchants. Or so says local independent merchant Suzanne Dyson, owner of Ko Atelier Boutique on des Pins Avenue, and who, along with le Marché Mtl’s Sabrina Maisonneuve, have officially christened this Saturday, April 25 Buy Something Local Day.

“We came up with the Buy Something Local Day idea because we wanted to get the word out to people that they really do have the power to get the economy going again,” says Dyson. “So basically, on April 25 we’d like to see people supporting their neighbourhoods by shopping at a local store or eating at a locally owned restaurant or buying their bread and potato chips at their neighbourhood dep, supporting any small local business, really. Even just spending 10 bucks will make a difference.”

Dyson says many consumers, along with big-business-bailout-friendly governments, fail to recognize just how important businesses like hers are to both the quality of life of any given neighbourhood and to the health of the national economy on a macro level.

“According to the Retail Council of Canada, 97 per cent of Canadian businesses are small and medium-sized companies employing less than 100 people. That’s pretty significant, I’d say. But the government isn’t bailing any of us out. I work in fashion and I keep hearing about all these programs being put into place to help the fashion industry, but when I call them up for information, they tell me I have to have sales of $500,000 a year or more. But since I’m a small business, not selling quite that much, well, apparently I’m not important enough to the economy to qualify.”

Dyson also blames the media for creating a climate of fear surrounding the recent economic downturn, suggesting the situation is nowhere near as grim as journalists have been reporting.

“They’re framing the current economic situation as being dire, always talking about layoffs and anything else bad they can get their hands on. But all they’re doing is scaring people, which really doesn’t help the situation. The fact is that layoffs happen all the time, the stock market goes up and down all the time, and when it goes down, it doesn’t have to be a horrible event. The economy isn’t as bad as they make out. Unemployment rates aren’t nearly as bad as they were in the last recession, nor are they expected to get that bad. So why is the media instilling fear in everyone? It sells advertising, I guess, but it’s certainly not helping anybody.

“With Buy Something Local Day,” continues Dyson, “we’re trying to encourage people not to panic and automatically shop at places like Walmart or the dollar store all the time out of fear. Because when they go to these super-cheap stores that undercut everybody else, it’s the small local stores that suffer. People tend to forget that when they’re in panic mode, but if they want to keep their neighbourhoods alive, they’ll need to shop at local stores more often. Because right now, we small businesses are suffering. Last month in the Plateau, six depanneurs closed and a lot more of them are in trouble. I think that’s quite telling.”