Thank you for the small business plug. I do my best to make it the only way I shop. IAmerica, at least the one I used to know was built on the backs of small businesses. And you are right, they are the most grateful.
Thank you for your kind words. I own a gift and home decor store in Massachusetts and I understand the day to day struggle. It sometimes seems insurmountable. I am so thankful for our customers who support us all year. May your holiday be blessed.
Yes! I travel weekly for work across the US @ have seen the economic policies that are designed to help the oligarchs stamp out competition (a la Walmart & Pepsi’s inflationary price collusion). I watch Bloomberg daily & it’s very clear that small businesses are taking a worse hit than COVID due to tariffs (taxes paid by the US importer/business then passed on to the US consumer when the business can’t absorb the tariff (a tax paid by US, not by the exporting Country or business).
The majority of pain all these tariffs cause is to the country that imposes the tariff. Used very selectively & strategically tariffs have the ability to protect US businesses in some categories of manufacturing, but not when used as a cudgel to let an Authoritarian play negotiator for the sake of playing The Negotiator on TV (he’s terrible at negotiating) & performative power & emoluments made of gold.
US Manufacturing has been declining for the last 7 months, directly due to tariffs on the means of production. Idiotic policy. New Housing becoming more scarce due to tariffs on bdlg materials & all the workers who are too scared to show up at the construction sites being targeted for raids to kidnap brown & Black humans. So many construction workers have been kidnapped via the taxes we all pay, there aren’t enough workers to help us through this housing crisis, caused, in part, by big $ buying up millions of houses to flip to rentals & then, via collusion, use algorithms to jack up rent prices nationwide with no oversight from our Fed Govt.
China is loving this. They don’t need the US when they are selling to the rest of the globe. US Small Businesses are failing at an alarming rate across our country. The mainstream media is barely talking about it. 3 more years of this economic nightmare & attack on the civil rights of ~70% of consumers & workers (non-cis-hetero-white-males) will destroy millions of families. Empty storefronts line the streets in every metropolis & small town. It’s getting worse, not better.
No big businesses will be prosecuted for theft, fraud or consumer abuse during this administration. The US Justice Department works only for extremely rich white men who support or pretend to support the Misogynist in Chief. No more protections for fair pay or workers rights until we change the Executive Branch from these cruel & bizarrely moronic economic & immigration policies. We’re headed to stagflation (look it up & be very, very afraid).
The female Black unemployment rate is skyrocketing on purpose - a leading econ indicator. Tech companies are firing & laying off females first. Who runs our consumer-based economy? Women. We make ~80% of consumer brand choices in the US as we do most of the shopping & product research. Hurting women in their careers hurts children and can be extremely detrimental to the entire economy. It hurts men to make females worth less, yet they don’t seem to listen to the vast majority of economists who say this is true.
VOTE like your life and livelihood depend on it. And shop small when you can.
Leah, you are a fully wonderful human. I will plan a trip to Cali to visit your mom’s cafe & will tip heavily. Happiest of New Years to you, your family & all of the small business communities across our broken country. Thank you.
Thank you Leah. We always try to use family run and other types of small business's all year round. We lost some great places here in Lubbock, during covid. We were able to keep some going by dedicating ourselves, along with other's, in our community in patronizing them whenever possible.
I wish more celebrities and people with platforms did this! It's nice to know we can continue to count on you to be the one stepping forward, as you have with many other issues.
Wishing you a blessed Christmas and safe New Years!
Yes!! Supporting small businesses are key!! I haven’t shopped at Walmart, Target, or Amazon since February, unless i can’t get what I need at a local business, antique shop, or thrift stores!! Needless to say, I can count on one hand the times I’ve been in any of these box stores!
LEAH IM SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU !!! Thank you for all the work your doing to protect us from fake money grubbing religious so called churches!!!!!! YOUR FAMILY IS AMAZING!!! Carolyn Traverse City. MI
Thank you Leah, as a small business owner it means alot to have people thinking of us. Supporting small businesses helps that person and their employees raise their children. Buying from big businesses hurts everyone except the corporate suite. Employees are mere numbers, these executives become out of touch with the "little" people and consumers are mere numbers also. As a small business owner I can say many of us actually care about our customers. I have many that have become friends over the years, Just someone to connect with through conversation you cannot help but feel for their plight in life. Its far more then $'s its a human connection you will not get from a chain store. That guy or gal at the cash register - probably will not be their next time you go there as they have moved on voluntarily or otherwise. Small businesses strive to keep their employees. With AI moving faster and faster towards replacing people, small businesses are the last frontier in human connections. As we have seen the farther we get from that human connection the less civilized we have become.
I wish I could still do this, but I’m caretaking my 88 year old Mom. I barely leave my home, so most of my shopping was done online. What I did this year was cut back what I spent about 50% and told everyone it’s a much smaller Christmas this year. Maybe next year.
We have done all our shopping this year, in St Pete,Clearwater and Dunedin at mom and pop shops and craft fairs.
Thank you for the reminder.Happy Holidays Miss Leah🤎
Thank you for the small business plug. I do my best to make it the only way I shop. IAmerica, at least the one I used to know was built on the backs of small businesses. And you are right, they are the most grateful.
Thank you for your kind words. I own a gift and home decor store in Massachusetts and I understand the day to day struggle. It sometimes seems insurmountable. I am so thankful for our customers who support us all year. May your holiday be blessed.
Y u P , EVeRY 0Ne
Yes! I travel weekly for work across the US @ have seen the economic policies that are designed to help the oligarchs stamp out competition (a la Walmart & Pepsi’s inflationary price collusion). I watch Bloomberg daily & it’s very clear that small businesses are taking a worse hit than COVID due to tariffs (taxes paid by the US importer/business then passed on to the US consumer when the business can’t absorb the tariff (a tax paid by US, not by the exporting Country or business).
The majority of pain all these tariffs cause is to the country that imposes the tariff. Used very selectively & strategically tariffs have the ability to protect US businesses in some categories of manufacturing, but not when used as a cudgel to let an Authoritarian play negotiator for the sake of playing The Negotiator on TV (he’s terrible at negotiating) & performative power & emoluments made of gold.
US Manufacturing has been declining for the last 7 months, directly due to tariffs on the means of production. Idiotic policy. New Housing becoming more scarce due to tariffs on bdlg materials & all the workers who are too scared to show up at the construction sites being targeted for raids to kidnap brown & Black humans. So many construction workers have been kidnapped via the taxes we all pay, there aren’t enough workers to help us through this housing crisis, caused, in part, by big $ buying up millions of houses to flip to rentals & then, via collusion, use algorithms to jack up rent prices nationwide with no oversight from our Fed Govt.
China is loving this. They don’t need the US when they are selling to the rest of the globe. US Small Businesses are failing at an alarming rate across our country. The mainstream media is barely talking about it. 3 more years of this economic nightmare & attack on the civil rights of ~70% of consumers & workers (non-cis-hetero-white-males) will destroy millions of families. Empty storefronts line the streets in every metropolis & small town. It’s getting worse, not better.
No big businesses will be prosecuted for theft, fraud or consumer abuse during this administration. The US Justice Department works only for extremely rich white men who support or pretend to support the Misogynist in Chief. No more protections for fair pay or workers rights until we change the Executive Branch from these cruel & bizarrely moronic economic & immigration policies. We’re headed to stagflation (look it up & be very, very afraid).
The female Black unemployment rate is skyrocketing on purpose - a leading econ indicator. Tech companies are firing & laying off females first. Who runs our consumer-based economy? Women. We make ~80% of consumer brand choices in the US as we do most of the shopping & product research. Hurting women in their careers hurts children and can be extremely detrimental to the entire economy. It hurts men to make females worth less, yet they don’t seem to listen to the vast majority of economists who say this is true.
VOTE like your life and livelihood depend on it. And shop small when you can.
Leah, you are a fully wonderful human. I will plan a trip to Cali to visit your mom’s cafe & will tip heavily. Happiest of New Years to you, your family & all of the small business communities across our broken country. Thank you.
PS Leah-the takeout menu link on Vivian’s site is resolving to a 404 error as of now.
https://viviansmillenniumcafe.com/vivians-takeout-menu
Thank you Leah. We always try to use family run and other types of small business's all year round. We lost some great places here in Lubbock, during covid. We were able to keep some going by dedicating ourselves, along with other's, in our community in patronizing them whenever possible.
I wish more celebrities and people with platforms did this! It's nice to know we can continue to count on you to be the one stepping forward, as you have with many other issues.
Wishing you a blessed Christmas and safe New Years!
Yes!! Supporting small businesses are key!! I haven’t shopped at Walmart, Target, or Amazon since February, unless i can’t get what I need at a local business, antique shop, or thrift stores!! Needless to say, I can count on one hand the times I’ve been in any of these box stores!
LEAH IM SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU !!! Thank you for all the work your doing to protect us from fake money grubbing religious so called churches!!!!!! YOUR FAMILY IS AMAZING!!! Carolyn Traverse City. MI
Pretty picture
Small businesses are the glue of our community and incredibly important. Merci 🙏Thank you
Thank you Leah, as a small business owner it means alot to have people thinking of us. Supporting small businesses helps that person and their employees raise their children. Buying from big businesses hurts everyone except the corporate suite. Employees are mere numbers, these executives become out of touch with the "little" people and consumers are mere numbers also. As a small business owner I can say many of us actually care about our customers. I have many that have become friends over the years, Just someone to connect with through conversation you cannot help but feel for their plight in life. Its far more then $'s its a human connection you will not get from a chain store. That guy or gal at the cash register - probably will not be their next time you go there as they have moved on voluntarily or otherwise. Small businesses strive to keep their employees. With AI moving faster and faster towards replacing people, small businesses are the last frontier in human connections. As we have seen the farther we get from that human connection the less civilized we have become.
I SEE ONE OLD WOMAN AND ONE RETARDED PROSTITUTE
I appreciate you doing this. I try to go to small businesses whenever I am able, I even look for the designation on Amazon.
I wish I could still do this, but I’m caretaking my 88 year old Mom. I barely leave my home, so most of my shopping was done online. What I did this year was cut back what I spent about 50% and told everyone it’s a much smaller Christmas this year. Maybe next year.
Nice lips you have
This sick political administration is sick and so unprofessional..we need to support the small businesses, but don't get caught up..