{"id":29716,"date":"2021-07-29T23:54:27","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T03:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29716"},"modified":"2021-08-04T21:44:07","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T01:44:07","slug":"shoplocalyr-campaign-aimed-to-boost-business-consumer-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/shoplocalyr-campaign-aimed-to-boost-business-consumer-confidence\/","title":{"rendered":"#ShopLocalYR campaign aimed to boost business, consumer confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As businesses continue to re-open under the rules of Ontario\u2019s Step 3, more and more customers are rediscovering their favourite shops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as much as revenue begins to roll in once again, local small businesses need our help more than ever before \u2013 and the Region of York is aiming to drum up both commerce and consumer confidence through the Shop Local YR Challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany businesses have been negatively impacted by COVID-19 and small businesses primarily so,\u201d says Jonathan Wheatle, Director of Economic Strategy at the Region of York. \u201cOur local small businesses have been there for the community over the years, so this is a great way to show them some love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spreading the love is simple: purchase a good or service from a local small business, share your images on your social media channels using the hashtag #ShopLocalYR, and tag both the business and your municipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local businesses can also participate in the challenge by posting four or five images showcasing products and services to social media with the hashtag #smallbusinesschallenge in addition to #ShopLocalYR, tagging their home municipality as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSmall businesses make up about 84 per cent of businesses in York Region,\u201d says Wheatle. \u201cThis challenge is about engaging groups of stakeholders \u2013 the residents themselves and the business community. From the residents\u2019 perspective, we\u2019re encouraging them to get out into the local business communities, purchase the goods and the services, but don\u2019t just stop there; share your support on social media and talk about your experiences so it is really engaging. From a business perspective, we want [them] to pull in those community enthusiasts that might be looking for more to be a part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cResearch not just by our team but research done by Statistics Canada and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business has shown that small businesses, primarily those in accommodation, food services and entertainment are the ones that have been hardest hit. [According to the Federation], when business leaders are asked what worried them about COVID-19, two of the top four responses were consumer spending being slow to return to pre-COVID levels and cash flow tied to that. It really shows the importance of initiatives like the Shop Local campaign is really helping with consumer confidence and in businesses [such as] food services, accommodations and entertainment, consumer confidence drives participation in those businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

York Region\u2019s Economic Development team has been working diligently since the start of the pandemic through the Business Recovery Support Partnership, an initiative that has brought together not only their efforts, but also the Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade in York\u2019s nine municipalities, along with York University and Seneca College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs economic development stakeholders across the Region, we\u2019re truly committed to supporting the recovery of our business community,\u201d says Wheatle. \u201cWe\u2019re here for them and the community is here as well to support our businesses, so we\u2019re truly encouraging everyone to get out there, shop local, get out into the community and show them some love \u2013 of course, being mindful of the existing restrictions that are still in place. But, we\u2019re in Stage 3, so there is a lot more that can be done and that is a big thing!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on the campaign, visit York.ca\/shoplocal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As businesses continue to re-open under the rules of Ontario\u2019s Step 3, more and more customers are rediscovering their favourite shops. But as much as revenue begins to roll in once again, local small businesses need our help more than ever before \u2013 and the Region of York is aiming to drum up both commerce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7Ji","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 10:41:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}