SUPPORT LOCAL vs SUPPORT SME'S

I have recently been reading a lot of people posting about shopping local, shop with your local café, shop with your local butcher, local restaurants, local retailers etc. etc.

People suggesting that you shouldn't be supporting Big Business or Multi-Nationals etc.

However, there is a difference between supporting local and supporting SME's which I believe people are confusing.

Businesses with 20 or less employees make up something like 97% of businesses in New Zealand and so there is this understandable big push to support SME’s and local ones at that.

I get it.

I’m a small business.

Support me.

However, I have also come from big business.

After running Large Hotels and Food & Beverage Operations for most of my career I understand that although big business only makes up maybe 3% or something of companies, they also employ 70% of the workforce in New Zealand.

70%

And in case that didn’t sink in, just one more time.

70%

Big business is also responsible for roughly 70% of the GDP.

Now I’m not saying big business owners or shareholders need our support.

And I am definitely not talking about companies like UberEats who are immoral and are price gouging and taking profits away from our economy without first paying their fair share of tax like the rest of us.

But that topic is for another discussion. I don't have the energy for that.

But back to my point, for the most part a lot of big businesses, their owners and shareholders will ride through this impending recession relatively ok. No matter how much we push a certain agenda to shop local and shop SME’s.

But what people are forgetting is the staff who work in the big businesses.

They won’t be ok. They are first to be cut to maintain profit margins.

Especially in the service industry, Hospitality, Retail and all the industries that support these two.

I can only really speak to hotels as that is my area of expertise, but I can tell you right now after the wage subsidies run out there are going to be huge job losses if they haven’t already happened.

Hotels and other large Hospitality businesses, although they are Big Business, they are run by local people.

Robert who lives next to you, your friend Aleisha from high school, Sione that you went to University with.

Your mother Pam, your brother Ishan, your wife Aina.

These are all real local people whose jobs are now on the line.

Their mortgages aren’t going to be paid.

Their children may not have dinner tomorrow.

I was one of these people back in 2008/09 when living in the Gold Coast.

It meant that I was forced to live in a car with my cousin and brother until we could muster up enough money to get ourselves another flat.

I don’t wish that on anybody.

It’s inevitable that there will be losers that come from this economic crash, and in my opinion, we haven’t even started to feel the full ramifications.

But pointing at big business and saying.

You are bad, those of you who shop there, you are bad too.

Is irresponsible, immoral, and na?ve.

We are in this together.

Instead of saying let's support local or support SME’s.

Let’s just support local people who are adding to our economy.

When your wife Aina, comes home in a few months when we are back at level 1 saying that their restaurant at the hotel is suffering and staff are going to be let go because of the lack of international tourism. Then grab a bunch of mates and go for dinner.

When you feel like McDonalds, then get it. There are real local people who work there. A lot of people’s teenage children work there. Those same teenagers spend their wages at the local dairy’s, probably the liquor store lets be real, and retail outlets etc. That are all SME’s!

Does McDonalds need our help to survive?

No, of course not.

But the frontline staff member, Marie, who will be cut at the first sign of falling revenues, she does. She isn’t going to be hired by the local café. She probably doesn’t have the experience and they probably don’t need her and probably can’t afford her.

So, before you start criticising people for spending their money in big businesses just remember there are real local people who work there that you are essentially saying are not worth your money.

I get for the most part that isn’t your intention but as a person who has been in the shoes of these mostly low-income wage earners of big business. It is definitely how this message is coming across to a lot of people.

Just be kind.