Amazon, Friend or Foe?
The popularity of human scale cityscapes, where people walk to work, eat, shop and hang out with friends is coming back in vogue. As the desire for walkability has surged, many small and midsized towns have taken advantage of the trend and set their once lost city centers up for success. They have invested money in making streets more pedestrian friendly with narrow lanes, angled parking, shade trees, walking paths, bike lanes and green spaces.
The revival of the entrepreneurial spirit, thanks to the help of technology and the ability to provide expert services remotely, has empty nesters and millennials alike discovering they can work from anywhere. Many are choosing to work in small urban areas versus the high stress, dense, mega-city centers or the user un-friendly nature of the suburban life. They are finding refuge in the small scale, somewhat nostalgic urban cities that can provide walkable amenities. What these smaller transitioning neighborhoods don’t have, that the metropolitan city centers do, are population densities to support high volume low margin necessities, most namely, grocery stores within a walkable distance. However, never fear, technology has aided in this shortcoming as well.
Amazon, intuitively, is the antithesis of the hometown revivals, where there is a renewed sense of the philosophy to eat, shop and play local. However, it is the delivery prowessness of Amazon that enhances the urban lifestyle in these smaller towns with 24 hour delivery of just about anything to your door step. It is Amazon that makes living in small downtown neighborhoods more feasible when there is not a grocery store in your community.
In the backward development pattern, that most downtowns find themselves in, this technology allows for the residents to inhabit the neighborhood first until a critical mass is established and the retail can follow. And, do you remember those evil big box retailers? The Wal-Marts and Home Depots of the world that made many downtowns ghost cities 50 years ago. Amazon seems to be a formable competitor undermining the big box strangle hold. The enemy of my enemy is my friend…right?
Careful what you wish for. The other side of the Amazon effect is that they are trying to own the infrastructure of the economy, not just be an online retailer. 50% of online buyers go only to amazon (driven by Prime membership). To stay relevant, retailers sell their products through amazon. Now Amazon owns the information and can do as they please with it, such as use it to develop their own products for the best selling items and undercut pricing and push their products in searches.
How do we strike a balance between the life-style we want and the conveniences of the technology that lets us live this life we want? It seems the world is big enough for both, but the answer isn’t easy. It requires an awareness and effort by the residents and the community to support local retailers when possible and not fall into the trap of cheapest and the most convenient. It is the shops and merchants downtown that are the soul and character of the city. If you embrace that environment, then you must nurture it. Not much different than planting a tree. In the beginning it is very fragile and requires a lot of watering and extra support to brace it up so it can grow healthy as it fights the natural environmental elements. Eventually it will find its way, become strong and require less intentional and deliberate care.
As we breath life back into our downtowns, they are also very fragile, just like the tree sapling. There are several ways you can nurture your local establishments. Most importantly is with your financial support. Making regular and predictable purchases is like watering the young tree. But water alone is not enough. They need extra bracing and support. We can provide that support by sharing their facebook posts, recommending them to friends, and showing that we are buying from them which will encourage others to do the same.
Look for ways to promote their products to local business. For example, choose one of your local retailers to buy all of your customer appreciation gifts from. One of our businesses is selling houses. We custom order all of our client house warming gifts from a local merchant. You can also hire local artists to decorate your building or office throughout the year for the different holidays and encourage organizations you are involved in to use catering from locally owned restaurants.
Just like pruning is required as young trees grow, not all local retailers will survive. Some will be pruned, but it will require our intentional effort to let the healthy ones survive.
Written by: Katie Neason
