Ava Pospeck ’22
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a major detriment to the worldwide economy. Christmas, one of the biggest stimulants to the economy, is traditionally the biggest way for small businesses to draw in new customers and to increase their yearly revenue. Due to COVID-19, however, many stores have closed and cannot open in person because of the government restrictions. They will make significantly less money than in previous years, which will cause financial havoc on the United States’ and the worldwide economy as a whole.
Some small businesses are going online because of the pandemic; however, they must compete with mega-brands such as Amazon and Walmart, who make online shopping easy with services such as Prime. Small locally-owned businesses can’t afford to do so. In 2013, the US alone generated over three trillion in dollars for the holidays which, due to the pandemic, the country will not achieve this year. What we as consumers can do to help this year is shop small! Instead of shopping at major corporations such as Walmart, Target, and Amazon, we should shop at local, family-owned small businesses in order to help them make up for the revenue they lost this year due to the pandemic.