As a husband, father and grandfather, I know how important it is to find the perfect gift for your loved ones. As the president of a locally owned and operated family business, I also understand how the gifts we give can have a huge impact on our local community.
Our three Stan’s Fit For Your Feet and two New Balance stores have a combined 65 full- and part-time employees. When you shop at our stores, versus online, you’re helping us to keep them employed. They in turn, are taking their paychecks and spending money in our community.
To build upon this point, Local First Milwaukee, a metro Milwaukee business alliance of independent, nonprofit organizations and locally-owned businesses including ours, cites, “For every $1 you spend at a locally owned business, more than $0.68 remains in Milwaukee, compared to the $0.43 that stays here from national chains. Nonprofit organizations also receive on average 250 percent more support from small business owners than they do from large businesses.”
It’s safe to say that shopping locally is a wonderful way to support the Greater Milwaukee economy and make it a truly special place to live and find unique gifts for your loved ones.
Here’s something else to think about: if every Milwaukeean shifted an additional 10 percent of their year-round shopping and dining from national chains to local businesses, we would create $311 million in new economic activity annually in Greater Milwaukee. This is because independent retailers re-spend two to three times more of each sales dollar locally than their big chain competitors. That’s a pretty staggering statistic.
This holiday season, we hope you will visit our locally owned family business and give us the opportunity to impress you with our wide selection of fashionable brand name shoes and amazing customer service. As a bit of enticement, I should mention that all of our Stan’s and New Balance locations in Brookfield, Greenfield and Glendale will be holding our traditional Black Friday Balloon Bonanza Event beginning 9:30 a.m. on Friday, November 28 and going through Sunday, November 30. Prizes will include discounts, products and more, so be sure to stop by.
Thank you for supporting our local business, and Happy Holidays!
Jim Sajdak is the owner of Stan’s Fit For Your Feet and New Balance Milwaukee.
