BY: LIZ SWAINE SHREVEPORT DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
A friend recently quipped that it takes seven times doing something to form a habit. I’m not sure if that number is correct, but I do know that once a habit is entrenched, it is hard to break. That’s one of the things that has been worrying me over the last few weeks as local businesses have been told to close and stayat-home has been encouraged. Locals, out of necessity and concern, have turned in overwhelming number to shopping online. Not only are we buying clothes, toys, music, books and home décor, we are buying shampoo, makeup, groceries and dog food. There is nothing we cannot get online, in many cases delivered to our door overnight. It is — unfortunately — seductively easy and getting easier by the day.
Once the stay-at-home orders are lifted and we get back to some semblance of normal, this is a habit that we need to break immediately. Our local small businesses that are mostly closed or just barely open, the ones that provide jobs and quality of life, the ones that make our city and community unique, are counting on it. They matter, and we should fight like hell to save them.
FOR THE REST OF THE ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE April 17 ISSUE OF FOCUS SB - THE INQUISITOR, GO TO https://www.theinquisitor.com/columns-opinions/your-special-superhero-power-%E2%80%94-saving-local-business OR SUBSCRIBE TODAY AT http://www.theinquisitor.com