SMALL BUSINESSES ARE SHUTTING DOWN

Caterina Cainca

It has been devastating watching my parents struggling to keep their shops.

It is more or less March 2020 and many shop owners are forced to shut down their businesses. Cities are almost dead; a city is alive as long as there are restaurants, bars and stores, but all people who run these activities are taken away from their businesses.

And while they were trying to keep them alive, reinventing themselves, downsizing, looking for a second job, they were also looking at the growth of their worst enemy: Amazon.
Yes, I am talking about the most intelligent and powerful device of our time.

Well, while retailers, restaurants and bars owners were forced to close their businesses, and in Italy they received on average 3.000 euros in return (they have been closed for almost three months), Amazon was doubling its quarterly profits to $5.2bn (£3.95bn), compared with $2.6bn at the same point in 2019.

It is not that difficult to understand why: shops are closed, people can’t go out, they have the possibility to sit on the sofa and get whatever they want without any effort, “what’s bad in that?”, they are telling themselves. The fact is, they never stopped.

And while the grocery shop five minutes walk from my house was trying to do its best to warranty the service, people discovered Amazon Fresh.

The grocery shop’s owners, a couple, worked more than ten hours a day to bring their costumers their grocery shopping.

This situation has been going on for a while now, and it is getting worse year by year: “projections suggest that between 2016 and 2026 the average annual growth of jobs across the economy will increase by 7 percent annually, but retail will increase by only 2 percent” reports the American interest.

You may argue that Amazon is providing jobs to many people, but do you know the conditions in which they work, and how much they are paid?

An Amazon worker states that during the Pandemic there was no distancing among them, that she did not know that she could wear the same mask only for some hours and that sometimes, given the increasing number of new workers, she had to stand because there were no free chairs.

Also, when you walk in a restaurant, a store, a bar you can feel the owner’s personality.
Also, can you imagine how much time there is behind the choice of an item?

My parents have to know their costumers, try to satisfy their requests because people trust you, and you owe it to them; then, they try to find the best product, in terms of quality, at the best price, because they don’t want to fool them. The costumer is never alone, he or she is the best interest of the owner, and this is true for any kind of business.
Knowing that all this is not enough is demotivating, it is a sign that everything is changing.

My father had to start a second job, he works ten hours a day, he is just 55 and he is tired. But you should see the proud in his eyes when he tell a costumer the history of a coat, the material that has been used, how much time has been spent to manufacture it.

Can you feel it when you buy something online?
You may argue that buying online is cheaper, I cannot but agree with you, but don’t you think it would be better to give something up and save money for better quality and service?

If each of us try to stop using Amazon we will be helping not just the shop owner, but his or her family, and the whole city as well. If shops, groceries start closing our cities will become lifeless and colourless, but together we can stop it.