Madison, Wisconsin is the perfect place for Carol Schroeder’s store, Orange Tree Imports. The 48-year-old specialty business, located on Monroe Street, greets passing shoppers with its gold-on-black lettering and hanging sign.
For many consumers both nationwide and in Wisconsin, supporting small businesses is an important part of being an ethical and socially conscious shopper, according to McKinsey & Company.
Gov. Tony Evers issued a November proclamation to declare “Shop Small Wisconsin,” an initiative between the state government, chambers of commerce, community leaders and local small businesses to “show support for their neighbors and communities by shopping local” during the holiday season.
“Wisconsin — and especially the Madison area — has a strong tradition of supporting locally owned businesses,” Schroeder said in an email to The Daily Cardinal. “We are also fortunate that Wisconsin tends to be a somewhat less expensive place to start and run a business.”
Schroeder believes the “special character” each store and restaurant offers its community is an invaluable effect of the continued existence of small businesses.
“I have seen Gov. Evers visiting shops like ours, often with his wife. They seem genuinely enthusiastic about purchasing items from Wisconsin’s small retailers, which is not something we ever saw in the previous administration,” Schroeder said. “Getting the message out about the importance of local business — whether through Dane Buy Local or Gov. Evers’ initiative — is crucial to our survival.”
Despite support for small businesses in Wisconsin, the road to starting one is fraught with difficulties for entrepreneurs.
“I know from my fellow businesses on Monroe St. that it is challenging to get loans or other capital to start a business. We don’t have a lot of ‘angel investors’ wanting to put money into small businesses, which are risky investments under the best of circumstances,” Schroeder said.
Nationwide, only 42% of small businesses have met their financing needs and 85% reported experiencing financial difficulties in 2021, according to Forbes.
“We are facing both a decline in sales, largely due to Amazon, and a shortage of workers in all sectors of business,” Schroeder said. “We see restaurants and stores limiting their hours because they can’t get enough staff, which also makes it challenging to provide the excellent customer service that sets locally-owned businesses apart from our big box competitors.”
Amazon, an online shopping monopoly, sells items below market value to undercut competitors. In return, small businesses struggle to stay afloat in the digital age, according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
For Orange Tree Imports, the highest-selling items during the holiday season are smaller gifts like food, chocolate and stocking stuffers because most shoppers prefer the online market for larger purchases, Schroeder said.
“There is a lot of pressure to do as much business as possible in a short amount of time — most years November and December [are] about 40% of our sales,” Schroeder said.
More than 2 million American workers became unemployed after the COVID-19 pandemic. This shortage caused many small businesses to face staffing problems, including Schroeder’s.
Orange Tree Imports has remained closed in the evenings since the pandemic began. To combat this and prepare for the holiday shopping season, she said they implemented new staffing strategies.
“We’ve brought on part-time employees for just one or two days a week, which we would not do if there were enough employees willing to work more,” Schroeder said. “We’ve also hired a few people with physical limitations, which we know is the right thing to do — but I must admit we might not have made that choice if we had a large pool of younger, robust candidates.”
While there have been bumps in running her business, Schroder said her customers are understanding and “come when they are able” during the holiday season.
