Jessica Locke, a paramedic living in Linn Creek, did some traditional mall-type shopping over Thanksgiving weekend, she said Friday night at a neighborhood social gathering in Republic.
Locke, who’s lived in the United States since 2010 after moving from her native Germany, said she and friend Steven Belcher drove from Springfield to hit up the Tanger Outlets in Branson on Black Friday afternoon. . .
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Wayne Winegarden, an economist with the California-based Pacific Research Institute, told the News-Leader that “hopefully this should be a decent shopping season” in an interview the week before Thanksgiving.
“If you look at where the economy is, the big driver has been the consumer,” he said.
Most incomes are growing, and unemployment is low.
“All of that is bullish, all of that is positive,” Winegarden said.
But in his view — which, like everything in economics, is disputed by other economists— regulation costs weigh heavily on small businesses like the ones putting on Small Business Saturday events in Springfield.
Meanwhile, it’s hard to get enough capital amassed to get a small business started in the first place, particularly for folks in Latino and African American communities, Winegarden said.
“Whether nationally or in Missouri or pretty much every other state you go to,” Winegarden said, “small businesses are pretty consistent with regulation being an issue for them, and access to capital.”
