The best gifts come from the littlest boxes

Whether you love it or dread it, the “holiday shopping season” is upon us and Americans are expected to spend upwards of $125 billion on holiday gifts this weekend as they hunt for Black Friday deals, Small Business Saturday savings and Cyber Monday blowouts. In a bit of good news for retailers who have been able to hold on to their brick-and-mortar locations, nearly 90% of those surveyed by the International Council of Shopping Centers, say they plan to visit retail shops during their Thanksgiving weekend shopping sprees. “Thanksgiving weekend reflects the enduring significance of physical retail as the cornerstone of holiday shopping,” the ICSC president recently told BusinessWire. “Shopping centers are no longer just destinations for transactions; they are dynamic spaces where people gather, connect and make memories.” In Camas and Washougal, holiday shoppers have an opportunity to not just find good shopping deals over the Thanksgiving weekend, but to use their dollars to support local independent retailers, give back to their cities through locally collected sales taxes and help strengthen the small businesses that help set Camas and Washougal apart and create that beloved “small-town feel” people love about this area. We detail in today’s Post-Record some of the sales and special events happening in downtown Camas for Little Box Friday the day after Thanksgiving and for Small Business Saturday on Nov. 30, but downtown Camas is not the only place local shoppers can find independently owned shops and restaurants that are counting on the holiday shopping season to help them weather the traditionally slower winter months. According to a recent Quickbooks survey, more than 60% of small business respondents said the revenue they earn during the winter holiday shopping season is “a key factor to the success of their businesses.” And research shows that where we shop makes a huge difference to our local communities. “When you support a local business, you’re also supporting your town, city, and neighborhood by way of paying sales tax. The sales tax money is used to support public schools, parks, roads, and sidewalks, as well as fund public service workers, like firefighters,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce noted in a Nov. 5 article about Shop Small Saturday. “Small Business Saturday encourages Americans across the country to support local small businesses. The day infuses money back into our local economies, promotes vibrant and diverse communities, and celebrates the important role of small businesses in the national economy.” On the other hand, choosing to spend our holiday shopping dollars at “big box” stores — typically national retailers with massive, warehouse-like buildings and supersized parking lots — often has the opposite effect, pulling money out of the local community and negatively impacting smaller, more unique retailers. “In towns and cities across America, big-box retailers have been the death knell for local businesses,” Good Jobs First, a national policy resource center that promotes corporate and government accountability in economic development, recently pointed out. “As big-box retailers spread across the country and wipe out local businesses in their wake, America becomes more homogeneous and the unique character of individual communities is lost. In 2004, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the entire state of Vermont as one of eleven Most Endangered Historic Places because Walmart had announced plans to open seven new 150,000-plus square foot stores there, threatening the state’s revered architecture and small-town culture, as well as its entrepreneurial health and environmental standards.” The resource center noted that big box stores also undermine retail workers’ wages, undercut local “mom and pop” retailers, add to a region’s urban sprawl, increase a community’s car dependence and threaten “uniqueness of place.” In contrast, shopping at local independent businesses has a host of benefits for the local community. As Sustainable Connections, a Washington nonprofit with a mission of “advancing a regenerative local economy that builds community, strengthens food systems, catalyzes climate solutions and expands access to housing in Northwest Washington,” notes in its literature on the benefits of buying from local businesses, “Small-scale, locally owned businesses create communities that are more prosperous, connected, and generally better-off across a wide range of metrics. When we buy from independent, locally owned businesses, rather than national chains, a significantly greater portion of our money is then cycled back through our local economy — to make purchases from our friends’ businesses, to aid our neighbors in need, and to support our local farms — ultimately strengthening the base of our whole community.” Plus, as anyone who has battled Black Friday crowds inside big-box retailers can attest, strolling through downtown Camas’ historic shopping district — maybe grabbing a coffee and a pastry at a local cafe before perusing the unique and often locally- or regionally-made goods and catching up with friends and neighbors definitely beats sitting in traffic and jockeying for a parking spot only to wait with hundreds of other (likely cranky shoppers) under fluorescent lights in a hot, crowded big-box store. So this week, as you digest that Thanksgiving meal and begin to consider where you might find the most thoughtful gifts for your family and friends, do yourself — and your community — a huge favor and make a promise to avoid “big boxes” and spend the majority of your holiday shopping dollars at the many “little box” stores available in Camas and Washougal.

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