Support Your Community This Holiday Season: Shop Local

Supporting local businesses by shopping local is more important than ever this holiday season. With concerns about COVID-19 still lingering, many forecasts are predicting a dramatic increase in online sales and a decline in sales at brick and mortar stores.

Here are some sobering statistics:

• Deloitte’s Annual Holiday Retail Forecast predicts that not only will holiday retail sales increase less this year (1-1.5% versus 4.1% in 2019), but e-commerce sales will grow by 25-35%.
• A Forrester report predicts offline sales to decline by 6.6% in 2020.
• A survey by Redpoint Global found that 62% of adult shoppers surveyed planned to do all their holiday shopping online.

What Can You Do?

Don’t contribute to these statistics! Midland offers a wide variety of businesses that have great holiday gifts. Many of them offer gift cards, curbside pickup and even delivery if going shopping in-person is a concern. Even just buying a few gifts you would normally purchase online from a local retailer makes all the difference!

#ShopLocal All Year

Here are a few things we can all do to support our local businesses year-round:

• Buy a gift card
• Get takeout/delivery from your favorite local restaurant
• Shop online
• Leave an online review
• Promote on social media by sharing posts from your favorite businesses
• Follow local businesses on social media
• Subscribe to business’ email lists