The consumer, the home-based entrepreneur needs you!
I am sick and tired of a) reading about how such and such a restaurant/cafe/shop/whatever went out of business as unprofitable and b) listening to people moaning and groaning about how it's a big loss to have to squat. "So I used to go there many times to shop for clothes." Well, did you ever buy anything there? Or did you just go to try something on and order the same item online, where it was a few tens of pounds cheaper? Did you ever use the services of bankrupt bars, restaurants or nightclubs - especially the smaller specialist ones - or did you spend the evening at home drinking drinks shipped from Tallinn, then go off, already pickled, for an hour or two to crack a tentacle.
I fully understand that times are tough and many people have a Matti in their wallet, who seems to have taken up permanent residence in Lompsa. Prices have gone through the roof while wages are lagging behind. Despite these facts, dancing on the grave of a business and updating when an entrepreneur has done everything he can to keep his business afloat but has ended up packing up seems hypocritical. Everyone can imagine how it feels for the entrepreneur in question to hear afterwards, "Yes, I would have come shopping, but I didn't..." How deep can you push that knife?
Statistically, the purchasing power of Finns has weakened. At the same time, however, it is also worth asking whether Finns' euros have simply run away online? Not at all, consumers do whatever they want with their own money, but if we want shops, restaurants and other services on the high street, it is only logical that the hard-earned euros should be channelled into the domestic high street. There is a lot of talk about the drying up of city centres, which is evident in the centre of Helsinki, for example. Of course, the decline in the centre of Helsinki, for example, has been caused by urban policy solutions, but it is not the consumption decisions made by people that are improving the situation.
Using and supporting the services of the home-based entrepreneur is also a question of values. Are you spending your money on a foreign, faceless website or are you supporting a domestic entrepreneur and thus Finnish economic growth? It becomes even more of a question of value when the business is owned by a friend or acquaintance. If people were prepared to support their own as strongly as they support a Chinese low-cost manufacturing company that orders a huge amount of environmentally harmful junk, we would hardly have to moan about bankruptcy waves - at least not as much as we do today.
As a society, we are in many ways plowing along on a tidal wave, with everyone being very careful and calculating with their spending habits. Not surprisingly, people's minds are weighed down by uncertainty about the future. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the core message of the 'Don't feed the recession' campaign of yesteryear should be revived. And precisely in the sense that we should value domestic entrepreneurs by using their services, even the smallest ones, because that is what keeps the wheels of the economy turning and society vibrant.
"I fully understand that times are tough and many people have a Matti in their wallet who feel they have taken up permanent residence in Lompsa. Prices have gone through the roof while wages are lagging behind."
Pastor