Buying local can ease supply crunch
Consumers, we have a problem. It’s impossible to escape the headlines these days; the global supply chain is broken, with every link under stress. COVID surges have closed overseas factories, swarms of cargo ships are hovering offshore, and staff shortages are impacting freight trucking, farms, warehouses and stores alike.
As we head into the holiday season of giving and receiving, retailers offered us a solution: start shopping earlier. Preview deals for Black Friday started circulating before Halloween. Amazon encouraged shoppers “get a jump on joy.” Price-match guarantees promised us we wouldn’t feel bamboozled by last-minute deals. Consumer advice articles followed suit with tips and tricks for beating the year-end crunch and scoring popular gifts.
But these logistical chess moves only distracted us from adopting a more radical solution to the fundamental problem:
Get off your phone and start spending your money locally.
During the holidays last year, Americans collectively spent nearly $790 billion, with sales growing 8.3%, according to the National Retail Federation — the highest year-over-year seasonal gain in at least a decade. This, in turn, spurred total annual retail growth of 7%, another unprecedented number. Much of this spending was fueled by online buying, which soared 32% in 2020 as we clicked our way through pandemic lockdowns — purchasing video games, patio furniture, kitchen gadgets and computers instead of flights and restaurant meals.
This year, the economy has largely reopened, but so far, we have yet to redirect our spending. The National Retail Federation’s holiday forecast predicts we’ll buy as much as 10.5% more than we did during last year’s record-breaking binge.
In short, the real problem is us. Those ships waiting at the port have been summoned by our tapping the “buy” button.
Scale up still further, and our habits connect to other recent headlines — the ones from the U.N. climate conference. In 2018, the most recent year data is available, the Environmental Protection Agency found that product and shipping packaging generated 28% of consumer waste in the U.S. Amazon alone uses enough plastic “air pillows” in its boxes yearly to circle the globe 500 times, according to the nonprofit organization Oceana. The trade publication Internet Retailer reported that 2020 holiday shipping volume surged more than 19%, putting more freight in motion via more
planes and trucks.
Reversing these trends will take much more than changing how we individually shop. But since the holidays are the biggest engine of annual retail growth, shifting even a slim percentage of our spending during this time can translate into a big impact — especially when you consider the potential beneficiaries. The $1,400 each Amazon Prime member spends annually, on average, may not mean much to Jeff Bezos, but to your neighborhood bookseller, that’s a hefty amount.
How can we slip out of the supply chain that binds us? Let us count the ways.
For starters, how about a gift certificate to a favorite eatery or watering hole? SFGate reported that San Francisco restaurant closures jumped 35% yearover-year in 2020, and the survivors are scrambling to staff Doordash orders that began during the pandemic and haven’t let up, even as in-person dining resumes. Home chefs on the gift list can receive a subscription for seasonal produce or wine delivery from local growers.
Another option is to give the gift of entertainment beyond Netflix. Remember that? Many Bay Area music, theater
and dance organizations have just resumed in-person performances, and are still operating at limited capacity. Tickets to shows, museum memberships and music or film festival passes support the creative community, as do gifts of a memoir workshop, pottery class or kids’ art camp. After scraping by with curbside concession sales during the pandemic, local movie theaters now offer an opportunity to rediscover the magic of bigscreen spectacle.
Spa sessions, history walking tours, gourmet bakery goodies, yoga studio passes, kayaking expeditions — even, yes, subscriptions to The Chronicle or a local literary magazine like Zyzzyva. The list goes on and on. By tearing ourselves away from the computer screen and gazing at our environs, we can use our holiday gifting dollars to support what we see nearby, things that make the Bay Area uniquely great.
Yes, this approach relies on the twin privileges of access and income. But given that the richest 20% of the population accounts for 40% of U.S. consumer spending, those of us lucky enough to have resources and discretionary dollars also have a greater obligation to change our ways.
Furthermore, local purchases have an outsized economic impact. Research from American Express found that 67 cents of every dollar spent at neighborhood retailers recirculates within the community, thanks to staff wages spent close to home and stores’ reliance on nearby suppliers for everything from merchandise to office supplies.
Cultural spending, too, has a ripple effect. San Francisco’s arts sector brings $1.7 billion into the city’s economy, according to the Bay Area Council Economic Institute: a night at the theater generates income for the community not only from audience ticket sales and restaurant spending, but also from the production company’s purchasing materials for sets and costumes, ordering a print run of programs and stocking the concession stand with goods from the bakery down the street.
The problems we face are global, but our discretionary dollars can be part of the solution. This holiday season, we can start by skipping delivery to the doorstep and passing through the threshold to reconnect with our community.