'Desperately needed': Shop at Newmarket businesses, mayor urges

Rather than spending money with Amazon or eBay, John Taylor is urging you to support local retailers who are having a 'very rough ride'

Newmarkettoday.ca
November 5, 2020

NewmarketToday received the following message from Newmarket Mayor John Taylor requesting the community's support of local businesses. 

Our business community here in Newmarket is having a very rough ride and it is going to be a long hard winter. They need our support.

I have been giving this a lot of thought and I believe there is much more we can do.

Let’s start with Amazon. Most of us order from Amazon (or eBay, or whatever) and that is OK, normally. In fact, it can be estimated that the average household spends more than $50 per month just on Amazon -- that adds up to about $1.5 million a month in Newmarket.

Over this holiday season, imagine if each of us, before ordering online, stopped and challenged ourselves to find the product locally.

Think how much money we could direct to local businesses. If we could keep even half that online spending locally for the next six months that would mean $4.5 million being spent to support local business.

This is not pie in the sky, this could really happen.

Let me be as direct as I can, we need to do everything we can to get desperately needed revenue into our local businesses so they can keep their doors open.

In the coming weeks, the Town of Newmarket will roll out a program asking us all to step up and do our part and SHOP LOCAL.

If you need ideas on where you can shop, the Newmarket Chamber of Commerce will be launching a gift guide to help you choose the perfect local gift.

We all have a shared goal, to see our local businesses thrive. It’s time to choose local. We can try -- or we can try really hard. Which will you do, Newmarket?