I AM a local business owner and I believe it’s time someone broke the resounding silence presided over by organisations representing business and commerce in Macksville.
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Local business owner operators have endured a steady decline in the local economy since the arrival of Woolworths on the outskirts of Macksville in 2010.
The town has lost its Medicare office and the Commonwealth bank, the Four Square Supermarket and the Department Store along with Toy World and several other retail shops.
The economic decline in now very evident by the number of vacant retail premises and the lack of shoppers on the streets.
It’s easy to blame internet shopping which may be applicable for some goods, but the main economic driver of local economies is the grocery dollar. Many small retail businesses rely upon the footfall that food shopping generates.
Like many other communities, Macksville and the Nambucca Valley as a whole has little really ‘local economy’ left.
Dollars come in as wages, salaries and pension payments and immediately they are spent they leave for accounts elsewhere.
Admittedly, even if those dollars were spent with locally owned businesses, most would leave to pay for goods imported into the area, but a greater proportion would be retained as wages for local people.
In better times, most small towns had a range of small businesses catering to local needs.
The physical dollars passed from business to business more frequently. Money circulated, doing what it is supposed to do, enabling local trade and commerce.
Many may comment that it’s unrealistic to try to turn back the clock, and that these days it’s just how it is!
But, we have no really local economy left, and very little resilience should we be impacted by unforeseen events.
Communities like ours are increasingly vulnerable.
They depend upon long supply chains and a constant flow of dollars.
Most of those dollars are digital and even their supply is dependent upon ready access to bank accounts via debit cards, or cash dispensed from ATMs, and all of these upon the internet, electronic funds transfer and electricity.
The message is, spend more dollars with local traders or lose them!
Make a concerted effort to help start rebuilding a local economy.
