Percentage-wise, New Orleans has more local businesses than most other American cities. In fact, the city has the fifth-best ratio of local to non-local businesses in the country.
So in New Orleans this year, there’s a push to make Cyber Monday more profitable for local businesses.
Mark Strella is the program manager for Stay Local, a group whose mission is to raise visibility for locally owned, independent businesses. He says when people shop online with big box retailers, very little of that money trickles down to New Orleans.
“Your money goes to some giant company that probably is not based in New Orleans, and there are no jobs created here on the ground except maybe the UPS truck,” Strella says. “Whereas, if you shop with local businesses, those local business owners spend the money locally, and they’re hiring people on the ground here to work the shops. So overall, the economic benefit is like night and day."
Stay Local is encouraging New Orleans shoppers to do 100 percent of their holiday shopping with local retailers this year. They have a gift guide on their website with suggestions for local stores — and Strella says most of them will have a website.
Tech and Innovations reporting on WWNO is supported by Bellwether Technology.
