According to federal data, earnings from jobs in retailing put a lot of bread on Greater Cleveland’s supper tables. In 2020, more than 95,000 residents of the Cleveland-Elyria Metropolitan Statistical Area worked in sales and related occupations, according to the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.
While that regional total may dip slightly by 2030, there’s no question that retail sales during this year’s holiday shopping season are expected to be robust in Greater Cleveland, according to the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants’ 2024 Forecast of Ohio Holiday Retail Spending.
The council, founded in 1922, is forecasting that this season’s holiday sales in the Cleveland metropolitan area will total nearly $5.38 billion, which, statewide, would be second only to the merchants’ forecast for the Columbus area: nearly $6.59 billion.
Several factors help put those regional and statewide data in additional perspective, especially for Ohio’s, and Greater Cleveland’s, many brick-and-mortar retail establishments and their employees. For example, research by the University of Cincinnati’s Economics Center indicated “that growth in non-store retail sales, which includes online and mobile shopping, has exceeded overall retail sales growth in Ohio since 2013.”
Meanwhile, Forbes magazine reported in March that “20.1% of [all] retail purchases” – not just holiday purchases – “are expected to take place online in 2024,” a proportion projected to grow to 23% by 2027.
In the background, there’s lively debate as to how much (or how little) online shopping contributes to a community’s economy. (Trouble is, many studies compare locally owned independent brick-and-mortar retailers to nearby brick-and-mortar chain stores – not remote, online merchants.)
But, the consensus, amid varying data and opinions, seems to be that locally owned brick-and mortar stores recycle far more cash back into their communities than online retailers can or do.
And, statistics aside, there are intangible plusses to locally owned retailers. One is the inescapable fact that encounters between an in-person local shopper, and an in-person local merchant and his or her employees, offer spontaneity, and insights, that no keyboard interaction or phone call can supply.
That’s why, as Greater Clevelanders continue their holiday shopping, which will climax Tuesday, the day before Christmas and the start of Hanukkah, they should look first, and longest, at the wares and services of Northeast Ohio’s local merchants – women and men who have a direct stake in promoting their and our communities’ prosperity.
No question, customer service employees of online merchants maintain Job-like patience as well as courtesy in their encounters with prospective customers. But an online employee simply cannot know the details of the wares and services their employers are offering as well as an in-person local merchant knows his or hers. Besides, there’s always the chance that patrons of a hometown merchant will encounter a friendly in-store pet seeking a pat or a scratch or will be offered a warm drink on a cold December day. (Meanwhile, as to books and such, it’s fair to ask who, besides a real, live bookseller, is better positioned to steer a browsing shopper toward a potentially memorable purchase?)
What’s more, there’s no question that the capital and talent Greater Cleveland’s retail entrepreneurs muster enlivens our neighborhoods, brightens our streetscapes, and offers us human encounters in a world that seemingly grows colder by the day.
That’s why shoppers and browsers should look to our region’s independent merchants not just now, but year-round. There’s no good reason to export the community’s capital, least of all for discretionary purchases, to distant, faceless corporations, rather than spending that money where it’ll stay: Here. At home.
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