BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – As Americans spend millions of dollars on gifts during the holiday season, some Vermont businesses are emphasizing what it means to shop small versus at large corporations.
Phoenix Books on Church Street was bustling on Friday afternoon, but even with shoppers in person, staff say it’s hard to compete in an online shopping world.
“Amazon is a major threat for Vermont businesses across the board,” said the store’s Joanna Grossman.
To try and get ahead in the game, Phoenix Books helped launch a campaign called “Main Street over Wall Street” to encourage people to shop small.
“We’re interested in creating a little bit of urgency. We always want people to shop local and invest in Vermont, but it’s more important now than ever,” Grossman said.
For the campaign, they joined forces with MYTI, an online shopping platform that only features Vermont businesses and only ships within Vermont.
“Our focus has been on, you know, how can we capture that are leaving the state and bring them back here,” said Myti’s Bill Calfee. He says in the more than two years they’ve been online, it’s been fairly successful and only getting better. “Right now, we’re in an amazing place… We’re looking for a very small slice of a huge pie.”
A report from the American Booksellers Association and Civic Economics showed that in 2021, Vermonters spent more than $1,100 a minute on Amazon. Calfee said every dollar diverted to Vermont businesses instead makes a big difference. “A million dollars spent at Amazon leaves the state. The state collects their 6%, but that money doesn’t move around at all. If we keep it here, it circulates,” he said.
“We need to make sure that we’re backfilling and we’re shoring up Vermont so we can continue to afford Vermont values,” Grossman said.
Though it may be slightly more expensive to shop local, they believe it’s worth it to invest in the Green Mountain State.
“Do you think Vermont is a great place to live? Do you like the culture here? If those things are important to you, then it’s worth spending a couple extra bucks,” Calfee said.
