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Celebrating small business in Hope

Hope and District Chamber of Commerce embarks on Do Your BIT campaign

This week marks small business week in B.C., a time when we acknowledge the contributions of small businesses towards community. Small businesses make up 98 per cent of businesses registered in B.C. and contribute roughly 33 per cent of B.C.’s GDP.

This Thursday, we celebrate the local community by acknowledging some of the best businesses Hope has to offer through the Business Excellence Awards. Sometimes in a big box society, we forget that the only people in retail chains that get rich are the shareholders. Absolutely the majority of big box chains fund worthy causes like breast cancer awareness, literacy programs, and help fund associations that help in Third World countries. However the businesses you see on main street fund the programs in your community. The small business community works hard to bring local knowledge to their businesses. Here’s the problem that small businesses are facing – retail drift. Consumers end up leaving smaller communities for larger ones to do their shopping. And when they arrive at a larger community they invariably go to the big box store. Who can blame them, its convenient. The prices are lower because of the corporation’s huge buying power, and it’s a one stop shop. My family and I do it ourselves.

The Hope and District Chamber of Commerce has embarked on a Do Your BIT campaign, Buy In Town. Local businesses can’t offer the same discounts that big box stores offer on a daily basis, but what they can offer you is the knowledge your money is staying in the community, going towards staff who live in the community, which in turn ends up in other local stores.

Glen Ogren,

Hope & District Chamber of Commerce