FEATURE
WWW.BENDSOURCE.COM / NOVEMBER 26, 2020 / BEND’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
8
N O I T I D E M A R G INSTA As the holiday season approaches, local retailers make the case: shop like your community depends on it. By Magdalena Bokowa
B
atten down the hatches. That’s the motto for this upcoming holiday season. It might seem somewhat fantastical, but as a small retailer in Bend, riding out this next round of Covid-19 closures is akin to captaining a weather-beaten ship taking on a concerning amount of water. Your crew is exhausted, the captain is slightly disheveled and all that’s left is resounding optimism — because let’s face it, it’s eight months into a global pandemic and there isn’t much else when faced with an impending storm surge. “They weathered together the fiercest storms of faction,” wrote Thomas Macaulay back in 1650, some thirty years before the first pilgrims arrived on America’s shores and to which, fittingly, envelopes this week’s holiday. Shipping metaphors aside, weathering the COVID-19 storm looks a bit different in 2020. First, the good news. With the first 10 days of the holiday season behind us, American consumers have increased their spending by 21% from last year, according to data compiled by Adobe Analytics, which monitors online sales. The day before the U.S. election, American consumers spent a whopping $2.2 billion—a 31% increase from the year before—and spent $2 billion on Election Day, which was a 27% jump from the 2016 election. Good, right? This increased spending? Not so fast. A whopping $21.7 billion, nearly 81%, of this consumer spending has taken place online — likely stemming from the fact that a reported 63% of consumers cite health concerns and are avoiding brick-and-mortar stores. As small local businesses go, many are dependent on in-person foot traffic, a bulk of which come from an already shortened tourist season. With the now impending holiday season at risk, what slice of the proverbial holiday pie do local businesses get? The reality of how companies are dealing with the COVID crisis and preparing for recovery is a very different story from the rosier national narrative. It’s a story
