Seminole Heights Retail Locations Struggle with Slow Sales.

You may have heard the story the Tampa Bay Times did on Seminole Heights restaurants facing struggles because residents are afraid to leave their homes.

Well, retail businesses in the area are feeling the strain as well. For example, on Valhalla's busiest day of the week last week, we made $2 in total sales for the day. Sadly, we're not the only one facing such a steep decline in sales.

Supporting local business, especially in hard times like these, is an important thing you can do to help build your community.

According to a study done by American Express, homes near areas with a high proportion of small, local retailers saw a rise in property values 17% higher than growth in comparable areas with proportionally fewer independent retailers.

“Last month Valhalla kept 79% of costs within the Seminole Heights community”

According to the Civic Economics Study, about 68% of money spent in a local community stays within the community. David Boyle of the Community Supported Agriculture Program says, "Money is like blood. It needs to keep moving around to keep the economy going." When money is spent at big box stores, "it flows out, like a wound."

At Valhalla, we strive to do better. Last month we kept 79% of costs within the Seminole Heights community. If you expand to look at Tampa as a whole, 89% of our expenses were kept within the community - about 20% more than the average small business. We also believe in supporting other women, 40% of our expenses last month went to supporting woman owned businesses and women in our community.

Things you can do to help:

Go out and shop local! Instead of getting a face cream at Target, pick it up at Cleanse Apothecary.
Organize a girls' day out shopping event. Shopping is always more fun with a lot of friends!
Make sure you're following your favorite local shops on social media.
Tell your friends about our great retail locations. Go to your favorite retail locations' Facebook pages and invite your friends to like the pages.
Make sure to shop local on Small Business Saturday.
Organize a group shopping event around Small Business Saturday.
Purchase gift certificates as way to help spread the word about your favorite retail location.
Share this article about the importance of shopping local.
Use social media to tag yourself using a product from a local retail location.

#ShopSH