skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Small Business Saturday: Boosting the Local Economy

play audio
Play

Wednesday, November 21, 2018   

VANCOUVER, Wash. – With holiday shopping about to begin in full force, small businesses want Washingtonians to keep them in mind.

Sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is Small Business Saturday, which began in 2010 and is meant to encourage people during one of the busiest shopping weeks of the year to buy gifts locally.

Colleen Boccia, chief marketing officer at Columbia Credit Union, which has branches in Clark County, says many members have a small business or are employed by a small business. She says small businesses support jobs and wage growth within the community.

"People living near where they also work, or supporting those small businesses by shopping there or being employed there or being employers themselves, create a really interesting, thriving, dynamic economic fabric," she points out.

Rather than succumbing to e-commerce giants such as Amazon, small businesses are growing. In 2016 in Clark County, there were 7,700 businesses with 10 employees or fewer.

Last year, that number grew to 8,000. Those businesses had a combined payroll of more than $900 million, according to Boccia.

Boccia says small businesses also are able to support local culture and offer the chance to find a gift Washingtonians might not find elsewhere.

"The whole idea of unique, individual, personalized gifts are something that our small businesses provide to the shopper community,” she points out. “That's for sure. Small businesses are the core of Vancouver's community. They make up 95 percent of all the businesses in the city."

Columbia Credit Union is joining the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce to choose three chamber members for Small Business Saturday grants worth $2,000 each this year.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021