COVID-19 has made it difficult to shop small—a majority of consumers (60 per cent) say they have been spending less at small businesses during the pandemic, and more at big box stores and online giants (59 per cent), according to a new public opinion poll conducted by Maru/Matchbox on behalf of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). Despite this, almost nine in 10 Canadians (87 per cent) say they wish they could do more to support small businesses in their community.
“With reopening finally a reality in most parts of the country, we now have a big opportunity to show small business the love and support they desperately need,” said Laura Jones, Executive Vice-President at CFIB.
The latest data on CFIB’s Small Business Recovery Dashboard shows that:
- 73 per cent are fully open (compared to 58 per cent two weeks ago)
- 50 per cent are fully staffed (compared to 42 per cent two weeks ago)
- 38 per cent are making normal sales (compared to 34 per cent two weeks ago)
“Small businesses are relieved that the worst of the COVID storm seems to be behind us, but for many of them the clean-up, including dealing with piles of debt, is daunting and exhausting in a new way. That’s why we are excited to give everyone an opportunity to benefit from showing their favourite businesses some love,” said Jones.
The #SmallBusinessEveryDay contest
To encourage Canadians to support small business, CFIB is bringing back its #SmallBusinessEveryDay contest from last year, with six times the prize money (almost $300,000) for consumers and business owners.
To enter, consumers can go to SmallBusinessEveryDay.ca and send a thank you message to a small business. The message gets relayed to the business and the consumer is entered to win a cash prize of $2,000 plus gift cards from Scotiabank, eBay, Mastercard and Dairy Queen. The business nominated by the winning consumer will receive $10,000, plus the gift cards. In addition to the weekly big cash prize of $10,000, Microban 24 is also offering bonus cash prizes to help small businesses reopen safely; 100 bonus prizes of $2,400 from Microban 24 will be drawn among all nominated businesses at the end of the contest.
“This contest gives consumers an easy way to say thank you and support small businesses with the added bonus of possibly winning some money to shop local. It’s a win-win and last year businesses were so moved by the nominations of their customers,” concluded Jones.
SOURCE Canadian Federation of Independent Business