At a recent Sonoma City Council meeting, City officials and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce joined together in that most sacred of holiday rituals: Proclaiming the annual Shop Sonoma Campaign. [Not to be confused with the War on Christmas.]
This being Sonoma, the Official Proclamation was solemnly intoned by the mayor, a banner was unfurled and grinning cellfies recorded the occasion. The august ceremony lacked only for papal vestments and tree-shaped car magnets.
But it was for a good cause: Hectoring residents to spend their scarce holiday cash at retail establishments in the City to enrich local merchants and boost the sales tax revenue that funds important City services such as police, fire and (not coincidentally) a recent $250,000 taxpayer subsidy for the Chamber of Commerce’s payroll. With the end of daylight savings time and the tourists largely gone, it’s now time to flog us locals for cash.
However, getting locals to Shop Sonoma is not easy, for reasons far beyond the power of City Council to change. While some think putting anything beyond the power of Council is generally a good idea, in this case it’s the Valley’s notorious agricultural-quality wages and numerous retirees on fixed incomes that can make local shoppers very tight-fisted. Many won’t even drive to the out-of-town big-box bargain stores anymore. Rather than Shop Sonoma, they Shop Online.
In an era when it’s possible to close out an entire holiday shopping list with a few mouse clicks, brick-and-mortar retailers everywhere are facing brutal competition from everywhere else.
For there’s no denying the joy of shopping from home or office, nursing a cup of coffee or glass of wine while leisurely browsing a global cornucopia of goods, available with gift-wrapping, greeting cards and often ‘free’ shipping. Even food. A dozen web companies deliver ready-to-cook chef-grade recipes with all the necessary fresh ingredients, often cheaper than buying them at the supermarket.
But price notwithstanding, virtual shopping is often justified by time saved and hassle avoided.
Forget that Shop Sonoma presumes that locals who often hold two jobs just to stay a paycheck ahead of eviction have the time to go shopping. Shop Sonoma conjures up visions of slogging from store to store, fighting off grasping, flu-infected mobs in a frantic hunt for the perfect gift for everyone on The List. Then lugging it all home, wrapping it, adding the card and – for out-of-town giftees – schlepping to the post office and standing in lines of people with runny noses in order to mail it. And in gun-happy America (!), holiday shoppers everywhere now face the prospect of being shot down like ducks by yet another 2nd Amendment devotee suffering from Seasonal Adjustment Disorder.
Online shopping avoids all that. Just click “Place Order” and a UPS driver will deliver the goods – boxed, wrapped, ribboned and appropriately carded – beneath a Holiday Tree anywhere in the world, and text you when they get there. Santa isn’t as reliable, even when he’s not drinking.
Such is the New Normal in which our local hardscape retailers struggle to compete. Those who survive and prosper are those who pay less attention to tourists and more attention to residents — all year ‘round, not just during commercial high holy days. No corny marketing proclamations or campaigns need remind us, or them, that whether it’s the drought or the economy, we’re all in this together.
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