HUNDREDS of Limerick retailers are calling on shoppers to turn Black Friday green later this month in a bid to stem the closure of small businesses and protect jobs.
Trade organisations Retail Excellence, the Small Firms Association and Chambers Ireland have come together, under the Champion Green banner, to emphasise the need for consumers and business to support local.
Traditionally one of the biggest shopping days of the year, Champion Green organisers say that shopping locally on Friday, November 27 and keeping money within local communities, is the best Christmas gift possible for the 40 per cent of workers in Ireland who lost jobs because of Covid.
Whether online, in-store or in-person, the message is to connect with a local business this Christmas, Ian Talbot, Chief Executive of Chambers Ireland, says.
“Small businesses are struggling and if they fail, the whole country will be poorer for it, literally. The simple act of buying gifts locally this year gives back to each of us in Irish society”.
A serious challenge is that 70 per cent of online sales in Ireland actually represent money being spent abroad.
By selecting the same or comparable product on Irish websites, or from local businesses, shoppers become part of the solution to the massive pandemic hit to the economy, trade groups backing Champion Green maintain.
“We are calling for businesses, individuals and media outlets to support the push to turn Black Friday green on November 27th. SMEs employ 70 per cent of the private sector workforce and the people working for them need your support,” Sven Spollen-Behrens, Director of the Small Firms Association says.
Christmas trade, which normally starts in September, can represent 50 per cent of annual turnover in some sectors, according to Retail Excellence chief executive Duncan Graham.
“Retail is Ireland’s largest industry and our largest private sector employer, in every city, town and village across the country. Local jobs relate directly to local prosperity, so the plea for consumers to shop locally on Green Friday is crucially important”.
Almost two out of every five jobs in Ireland have been affected, with employers and workers relying on wage subsidies or the pandemic unemployment payment, and the worst hit sectors including retail and hospitality,” Mr Graham added.
Read the Limerick Post Newspaper’s guide to local retailers HERE
