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U.S. retail sales fell by 8.7% last month — the biggest drop ever — but I hate to think what the numbers look like for small businesses right now. I’m also wondering which of my favorite local restaurants, stores, and services will make it through the pandemic — or be able to eventually reopen if they’ve already closed. So let’s discuss: Are you supporting small business during the coronavirus pandemic? How are you doing it, and are you specifically trying to support one or two small businesses you love?
Please feel free to discuss the ethical considerations of ordering food delivery, etc., in the comments — these are complicated issues, e.g., I’ve recently seen articles with headlines like “Is My Takeout Risking Lives or Saving Restaurants?”, “Is it Ethical to Order Delivery During a Pandemic?”, and “Are we bad people for outsourcing pandemic risk to Instacart?”. They’re all important questions to ask, but these debates can start veering into The Ideal COVID-19 Quarantine Woman territory, where it feels like you just can’t win when you’re trying to do the “right” thing. We’re all doing our best.
Related: Are you boycotting any companies right now because of your personal beliefs regarding ethical treatment of workers during the pandemic? How about going out of your way to patronize certain businesses that are supporting and protecting their employees?
Here are five ways to support local businesses during coronavirus:
When you buy books online, use an independent website
As we mentioned in our post on how to avoid Amazon, Bookshop.org has raised more than $600,000 so far for local bookstores (here’s how it works), and IndieBound.org has a indie bookstore finder. Other choices are bigger bookshops such as Powell’s, small companies like Bas Bleu, and larger, clearinghouse sorts of sites such as Alibris, which allows independent bookstores and individuals to sell their wares. (Libraries also sell donated books using Alibris, especially rare and otherwise valuable titles, so you can support them, too!)
Check local bookstores in your community, as well — some have started curbside pickup and/or delivery. Note that some independent bookshops are offering “book boxes,” where you pay a set fee and they ship you a care package of books they think you’ll enjoy based on a conversation with the staff.
Order takeout for curbside pickup or delivery
This is a very personal decision, of course. So far, my husband and I have been willing to risk a restaurant employee or delivery person exposing us to coronavirus. (Note: COVID-19 is not considered a foodborne disease.) We’ve ordered from our favorite Greek restaurant, two of our favorite Chinese restaurants, and, er, a doughnut shop (for Dr. Fauci doughnuts!). Ordering from Chinese restaurants feels like a worthwhile action to take right now, as an admittedly small way to counteract the racism and hate crimes Asian Americans have been facing lately.
If you’re worried about ordering food right now, check out this NPR article on how to do it safely. Also, it’s best for the restaurant if you order from them directly, as many of the delivery apps take a hefty commission — but note that DoorDash just cut its commission rate through May.
You can also donate to the Restaurant Workers Relief fund through The Lee Initiative. (Here are the details.)
Buy gift cards from restaurants and other local businesses
This is an easy thing to do, and if a business is closed, the gift card will even give you a little something to look forward to once life gets back to “normal.” If you have a friend or relative with a birthday coming up, consider giving a gift card. Besides dealing directly with the store, restaurant, or service provider, you can check out Kabbage’s gift card site, Help Main Street!, and, for the Bay Area, Save Our Faves. If you’re able, you can also think about paying for future services ahead of time, such as haircuts, waxing appointments, and so on.
Do some legwork to find small businesses to support
My town’s farmers market closed a few weeks ago, and to support the vendors, the market organizers have encouraged people to order directly from the farms, bakeries, etc. One of my neighbors has been arranging regular produce deliveries from a local farm to a central spot in our neighborhood; she takes the orders via an online spreadsheet and everyone pays their share.
Another neighbor created a similar setup with a market vendor who delivers eggs. If you have extra time right now, consider creating something like this where you live. (We’re in a suburban area, but I think this could work elsewhere.) Also, some small businesses have started online ordering to stay alive — contact your favorite local stores to ask if they’re offering the service.
{related: our posts on workwear stores off the beaten path}
Write positive online reviews online for your favorite businesses
Use Yelp, Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, Angie’s List, Vagaro, and so on to spread the word about your favorite places, local or otherwise. If you have a lot of time on your hands, check out this article on, er, 26 (!) customer review sites where you can contribute. Regarding Yelp, note that users who have only written one or two reviews may have their reviews hidden until they add more. Overly positive reviews may also be filtered out from a business’s feedback. Lifehacker has tips on how to write genuinely useful reviews online.
How are you supporting small businesses during coronavirus? Have any of your favorite local shops and restaurants had to close permanently?
Anon
We have a local distillery that has been making tons of hand sanitzer and donating it to many health care centers and other essential businesses. Instead of going to the liquor store I’ve been buying from them. I wouldn’t have even known of this business if it wasn’t for the publicity they got from all their donations. They just opened in January too. I bet they had no idea they would be providing necessary cleaning supplies to our community!
Anon
I wanted to add they are also giving out 4 oz of free sanitizer to anyone that goes to them and will also bring it to your car if you don’t want to go inside. Since I bought 3 bottles of booze they gave me three bottles of free sanitizer. I donated two to friends that needed it (contact free).
Anon
Would you feel comfortable sharing their name?
Anon
I’m not the poster above, but a distillery in my city is doing this as well. It’s called Rock Town Distillery.
KS IT Chick
We are using local restaurants for curbside takeout at least once a week. I am trying to use local farms for vegetables when I can.
I haven’t been buying physical books for years, so it’s a bit more difficult to buy local for e-books.
Anon
If you listen to audiobooks, you can use Libro.fm rather than Audible to support local bookstores. It’s the same monthly subscription price, and I’ve never looked for a book that wasn’t available on the app. A portion of the proceeds from purchases on Libro.fm go to a local bookstore of your choice.
Housecounsel
I have plenty of wine, but I ordered a case of a favorite cab from our local shop. They’re delivering. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make!
anne-on
We are supporting a few local stores (small bakery, small locally owned liquor store) and driving out to our farms in the surrounding towns WAY more. We’re also pre-paying (buying a credit) at one local farm for the summer – they have guaranteed income, and its a bit more flexible than a CSA for us. The farm workers are telling us they’ve had a HUGE uptick in business as it has been hard at times to get milk/butter/eggs. Our local prepared foods store is also selling yeast in baggies as they get it from a restaurant supply store, which was a great thing to find out!
Anonymous
I bought a new, expensive flat iron from my hair stylist and some product a little sooner that I really needed it. She invoiced me online and dropped it on my porch. Otherwise, we really aren’t doing much. We’re being pretty strict about exposure. We already rarely ate out, and now doesn’t feel like the time to increase it through take out/delivery. We might break down in a few weeks and get a meal delivered. All of our groceries and most supplies are being ordered for contact-less pick up from our local grocery store, which is regional (but primarily in my state), headquartered in our state, and responding really well to the pandemic as far as treatment of employees, tons of donations to food banks, etc. I feel good about giving them business and there isn’t a locally-owned competitor.
Anonymous
We are doing curbside pick up for dinner once a week at locally owned restaurants with a generous tip for the person who brings the food out to the car. I prepaid for two haircuts when the shop closed. And we are trying to purchase anything we can from small businesses. I have been sewing face masks on weekend and bought the material through curbside pick up at a local fabric store rather than JoAnn’s.
Anon
Buying Italian wine from a local importer. Buying locally roasted coffee from the roastery that supplied most of the restaurants and coffee shops around here (it’s honestly expensive, but I know that’s partly because they pay a high price to their farmers and living wages to their employees, and it’s good coffee). Buying meat and eggs from a local farm.
Anon
First of all – I’m not in the US! So different framework.
I have some of my groceries delivered from independent delivery company that carries items for small scale, local farmers (so local vegetables, local (frozen) grass fed meat), eco eggs etc. I use small, non-big-chain stores for essentials for the work from home office, small local yarn stores when I can etc. But yeah, I try to buy things I normally do, but make sure that if the producer/smaller firm/local firm can get the business, it’s theirs.
I’m super impressed with the postal service here, they deliver a lot of packages now and then send a text to say “hey, we’ve delivered package XYZ in your mailbox” so it’s not necessary to have any contact, but you know right away that they’ve been here and you don’t need to go to a pickup place.
Jeffiner
Before all this started, my daughter took riding lessons at a stable nearby. Last month we purchased a 5-pack of lessons to be scheduled later. She no longer takes swim lessons, but we made a donation to the swim school. We’ve also been ordering lunch 2-3 times a week from local restaurants.
The stables just announced they are re-opening for lessons, but my husband and I are a little nervous about doing that yet. They are keeping the lessons to 4 or fewer persons, and only scheduling them 3 times a day to allow for cleaning of tack and equipment in between, and no one is allowed in any of the barns or buildings. Being on a horse does keep you socially distanced…but it still feels like a risk.
Anonymous
how is this a risk? isn’t she outside? with gloves on? not near any other people?
I guess the risk could be from a horse injury, there probably aren’t good hospital options what with the shutdown.
Mrs. Havisham
I’m still going to some of favorite fast food places that are locally owned. It is easy to forget that these employees need to keep their jobs too.
My local library has been doing storytime, book clubs, classes, etc., online. Not to mention 24/7 wi-fi in the parking lot for everyone without Internet. Yet the the local politicians want to gut their budget because they’re closed. I’ve sent a letter to the mayor discouraging this. My eBooks and eAudiobooks are all library checkouts.
Belle Boyd
A good friend of mine is starting her own farm and raising beef cattle and turkeys to sell later this year. I just ordered my Thanksgiving turkey from her last night. Eggs in the grocery store have been hard to find — I was told it’s because the companies that make egg cartons aren’t working, so the farms raising the chickens and selling eggs have no way to get the eggs to the stores. I’ve been saving egg cartons and I have a couple of those plastic egg carriers we use to take eggs to camp, so I go to a local farm and get eggs from them. Local dairies here have been told to dump milk because the corporate dairies they sell to don’t have the demand. To support them, people have been buying directly from the small local dairies. I don’t use a lot of milk, and you have to get there early in the morning (when I have to be at work — no WFH at my company) but I am considering a visit to a local dairy’s farm store this weekend for some other products to give them a helping hand. Dairy farms here have been suffering as it is, and the current situation is just another hard hit to an industry already on its knees.
I don’t know if we’ll have farmer’s markets this summer or not, but I plan to shop them more than I usually do to support our local farms here. I was a farm kid growing up. I know how hard these people work and I know what just one bad season can do to a farm family. This is more than a bad season for most family farms. This is going to hurt a lot of people. If you can support a farm, please do it.
One of our local distilleries is also making hand sanitizer. Wigle Whiskey is the distillery. Nearly every local winery is offering some sort of curb service if you buy online and my favorite winery is offering home delivery. They just became even more my favorite!
I haven’t been ordering takeout. I’m still a little iffy on that no matter how safe everyone says it is, and the grocery store I’m shopping at is a regional group of stores that is run by local owners. I’m staying away from the larger corporate stores and places like Walmart for groceries (Walmart is a cesspool of germs anyhow.) For Easter, I bought from one of our local chocolate/candy stores that had their Easter candy in the grocery store instead of buying the national brand candies. There isn’t anything that Hershey’s or Nestle can make that would top Sarris chocolate anyhow, so the extra money is well-spent.
Good Morning!
More like small businesses are supporting me. I have a cupcake dealer who delivers and I signed up for a CSA for the summer. The cupcakes make me smile and the CSA hasn’t started yet but it gives me something to look forward to.
missannethrope
My husband is the kind of guy who hates to go out and buys pretty much everything for his obscure projects ( making tube amplifiers, growing heirloom vegetables) from Amazon. Now he’s supporting small businesses by buying his electronic components and seeds from individual sellers on eBay.
crim lawyer
Haha. It’s funny because many of us are small business owners but the writer doesn’t seem to be aware of that.
Basically my business is still paying everyone on time, no layoffs. We also maintain payments to the other small businesses we use like our paper shredder, our marketing team, our landlord etc. I support businesses like mine that continue to support their employees. We’ve given everyone who has taken COVID leave in March their regular pay even though they weren’t working from home.
I understand that many owners have laid off or terminated staff and that’s fine, they’re just not a priority for me to support.