On average, for every $100 spent at a local business, $68 remains in the local economy and community. That’s more than twice the amount big chains reinvest. This stat comes from Common Future, a nonprofit that advocates building strong local economies. I’ve been thinking a lot about this statistic because – if you know me – you know I love numbers, especially when we think about what a number really means.
It can be difficult to relate to those broad, blanket-statement numbers and to really “feel” them when they aren’t tied to something specific. As we head into the core of the holiday shopping season after our official launch on Small Business Saturday this past weekend, I thought we might break down and share some of Botany’s numbers with you.
· $1,325 in sales of products made by Michiana makers, from candles, ceramic slugs and pottery to jewelry, ornaments, and bath soaks.
· $1,124 in payroll for 6 employees over three days, Friday-Sunday, with Friday as a day to make final preparations for Small Business Saturday while the Shop was closed. These team members all live within ten minutes of the Shop in South Bend. They are more than our employees or friends: they’re also our neighbors.
· $675 raised toward our goal of $3,500 to support the 2024 season of our Small Business Support Group. This group of local entrepreneurs has been meeting monthly since July, and these funds will make it easier for us to keep investing in supporting our peers through 2024.
· $315 shared with five local not for profit organization partners who lent us a volunteer Celebrity Cashier on Saturday, which also was our final Give Back day of 2023.
· $230 in gifts purchased from our fellow Near Northwest Neighborhood merchants for our team member’s holiday stockings.
· $168 in tickets for all our team members +1 to visit Fernwood Botanical Garden’s LIGHTS with dinner at River St. Joe just down the road in Buchanan, an incredible rural destination we discovered very much by accident a few months ago during their enchanting (and delicious) harvest festival. Highly recommend this combo.
We’ve chosen to share our gratitude with our team for their amazing work this season through thoughtful gifts and meaningful experiences because we value the power of intention and shared experiences to bring us closer together. As we look forward to welcoming 15+ private holiday parties in the Shop this year for groups of friends and coworkers, this value feels particularly poignant right now.
If you’re keeping score (and if my math is mathing), that’s $3,837 of your money that is already making its way back into our community from just this past weekend alone. These numbers don’t include the regular things like rent to our local landlords, printing fliers and calendars at fellow local businesses to help us get the word out regarding upcoming events, holiday advertising with local TV and radio stations and ads in local publications like Edible Michiana, local contractors and consultants, and local taxes, to name a few.
These numbers help me frame our impact and our role as a local, independent business that is part of a broader ecosystem. We learn from the world of plants how each organism has a role to play within a community. Some plants cover the ground, insulating and protecting. Others have tall, heavy stems acting as natural support for grasses with delicate leaves and deep roots that help water infiltrate into the soil for the benefit of all. We can’t be everything to everyone and we shouldn’t try to be. We simply need to focus on doing what we do with love, intention, and in pursuit of the magic that makes us, us.
I’ve been debating the wisdom of sharing a message like this with you right now because it feels like I’ve been beating the drum of “loving on local business” a lot lately, and it’s because I firmly believe it’s a message that bears repeating. Are you tired of hearing me blab about this? I hope not.
What I do hope is that if you shared your valuable time and treasure with a local business this weekend you take a moment to appreciate what you made possible. You acted with intention, casting votes for the community you want to live in. For Botany, you made so many magical things happen, and this is true for any business you supported (and will support). I hope this inspires you to keep loving on local businesses this season and every season. We always need you, and these numbers are just a few of the many reasons why.
As our community consciousness of the importance and power of local business continues to grow, so too will our collective ability to impact the neighborhoods we occupy for the better. Abundance deserves to be shared. Community begets community. Momentum leads to synergy leads to resiliency leads to strength leads to quality of life.
The numbers we care about speak to who we are and what we value. They help us decide how to spend our time (we can do anything but not everything). In a way, I hope our transparency helps you continue to choose local whenever and however you can. I hope you share this with friends and encourage them to support local, too. I invite you to enter this community however and whenever you can because every action matters, a lot.
Thank you, sincerely, for everything. You allow all of us to dream, to create, to build, and you’re allowing us to do it here, in this place we grew up and are proud to call home. Every local business owner I know are doing what we can to make our community a little more beautiful, connected, and special. We’ll always be grateful to you, and we’re always excited to welcome you.
See you soon, plant lovers, and happy holidays. Thank you for shopping local.