PURPOSE

Love Live Local has once again partnered with Civic Economics, to produce our 2022 report which has been underwritten by The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod and the Horizon Foundation. The third report in our Local Matters series represents a novel addition to Civic Economics’ longrunning Indie Impact Study Series - for the first time the research focuses not on retailers and restaurants but instead on business and personal service providers and quantifying and assessing their impact on Cape Cod local economy.

In the first data analysis we conducted with Civic Economics, we definitively showed that independent retailers and restaurants outperform their corporate competitors by recirculating significantly more of their income back into the local economy.

With this study, Love Live Local seeks to expand the “shop local conversation” to include business and personal service providers, alongside their retail and restaurant local business counterparts, since they too face challenges due to the proliferation of national chains and ecommerce giants. Local accountants and bookkeepers, printers, and information technology providers face competition from big box chains as well as online services. Fitness centers face national corporate competitors and a growing online marketplace that was intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Local veterinary practices, dentist offices, real estate outfits and funeral homes are getting bought up by large corporations and private equity firms. And the local travel, legal, continuing education, and insurance sectors have all been negatively impacted by the rapid spread of online commerce.

Local service providers like those listed above are an important contributor to the local economy, representing a $1.5 billion industry on Cape Cod and employing 9.1% of Cape Cod’s workforce.

Through local business surveys, we were able to gather enough data to analyze the impact of two personal and business service industries: fitness centers and accounting firms.

Local personal + business services

EMPLOY 9.1% OF CAPE COD’S WORKFORCE