By Madie Murray
I had the privilege of having one of our wonderful business owners confide in me how very concerned they were about whether or not they would be able to sustain their business through this tough economic time on our Island. It made me think very hard about what I might be able to do to help besides shop, eat and play more locally myself.
I realized I could tell others in our incredible community how very much they are needed to help our precious population of unique businesses and restaurants survive. It’s done very simply…we go out of our way to patronize them any time and every time we can. If we’re going to practice sustainability, we can’t forget our fragile commerce.
We need to have dinner at the restaurants and buy items at businesses we rely on so heavily when we are looking for donation for fundraisers. How can we expect them to give something to us when they are barely hanging on themselves? Sometimes we haven’t even purchased anything there lately or ever, yet we’re asking them to give.
Granted. We are all trying to pinch our pennies, keep our non-profits going and save a nickel wherever we can. But we can’t forget that our businesses need US to keep them alive. If we are going to expect them to contribute to our causes, they should be able to expect us to support them, recommend them and patronize them – more now than ever before.
Summer is coming and the tourists and summer vacationers will once again visit our town, our businesses, our marinas, our restaurants and our many wonderful tourist activities, and I hope the town is bursting once again with renewed vigor. We need to remember, however, that they will go away come September and our businesses have to rely another long winter solely on us who live here. It’s time to pay it forward.
Beautifully said, Madie. Thank you!
Madie – you have stated in a most eloquent way one of the very important issues facing our islands. As the Executive Director for the Orcas Island Chamber of Commerce, I’m also acutely aware of how fragile our local businesses are. Our seasonal visitors do bring dollars into the community, but that isn’t enough to sustain a business through the year.
Granted, you can’t get everything on the island, and items are generally more expensive, but I’m convinced we can all make small changes in our buying habits.
I ran across this quote the other day, and thought it spoke to the issue perfectly:
“When you buy from a mom or pop business, you are not helping a CEO buy a third vacation home.
You are helping a little girl get dance lessons, a little boy get his team jersey, a mom or dad put food on the table, a family pay a mortgage, or a student pay for college.
Our customers are our shareholders and they are the ones we strive to make happy.
Thank you for supporting…
The last line ends:
“Thank you for supporting small businesses!”
Thank you for these words. Thank you.
We do very much appreciate all the local business this winter, and hope to see all of you during the summer as well. thanks Maddie!
Y’all, get a sticker for the back of your car: “Orcas First” from Lance….or 2 or 3. Have your car wear it proudly.
been paying it forward for years…it works !!
thank you for these eloquent reminders to all do our share to keep our wonderful island vibrant. See you in town.
One of my favorite things about living on this island is meeting and using the services of local business owners.