October 22, 2020 by Jon B. Hurst, President

Come January, countless small business owners will review their receipts and expenses and decide if they can stay open. They will be making that heart wrenching decision at a time of great uncertainty. Can they take the risk that they can bring consumers back into their stores and restaurants and drive up sales to cover their expenses, or are the costs of operating just too much?

The popular image of Main Street America is familiar and welcoming: charming storefronts, restaurants with brightly colored awnings, old-school pharmacies, newer cafes, coffee shops, shoe repairs and more. Those small businesses make up a large part of America’s cultural history and its modern economy. Jon Hurst, President of the century-old Retailers Association of Massachusetts sees an even more powerful tradition at play in those mom-and-pop shops. 

“Historically, it’s been the go-to industry for entrepreneurs. Maybe you worked for a large company, but always had a dream of opening your small business, employing people, and serving customers,” Hurst says. That tradition of bootstrap entrepreneurs chasing their dreams and creating local jobs is alive and well in America today. According to the Small Business Administration’s most recent survey results, U.S. small businesses created 1.9 million net jobs in the span of a year, and firms employing fewer than 20 employees experienced the largest gains, adding 1.1 million net jobs.

Moving Ahead on Sales Tax Ballot Question

RAM’s membership overwhelmingly decided this week to move forward with an effort to put a sales tax ballot question before the voters that would reduce the state sales tax to 5% and mandate an annual sales tax holiday.

January 9, 2017  By Jon Hurst

Despite seeing consumer confidence levels unmatched for the last 15 years, retail sales in Massachusetts dropped 1% among the 4000 members of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts this holiday season (Nov-Dec).  The RAM survey exclusively measures small, locally based sellers, and does not reflect either national chains or online sellers.  RAM had previously projected a 3.9% increase over the prior year.  The disparity in the projection coupled with the strong consumer confidence levels raises the question whether consumers truly spent less this holiday season, or sent more of their dollars out of state to online sellers.

SEP. 29, 2015 • BY JON HURST & MARTHA COAKLEY

Hardly a week goes by without a news report of a new cyberattack. As any consumer affected by fraud knows, the harm is real. The impact on businesses, government, and other targets is also real, and includes monetary harm and reputational damage that can devastate those so reliant on the trust of their customers.

MAR. 5, 2015 • BY JON HURST

At the request of the Baker Administration to help their efforts to obtain federal disaster relief from the historic month of winter weather, RAM spearheaded a survey to determine average small business sales losses over the four week period of January 26-February 22. RAM designed a survey and recruited the Massachusetts chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB-MA), Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM), the Massachusetts Restaurant Association (MRA), the Massachusetts Business Roundtable (MBA), and the members of the Massachusetts Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (MACCE) to participate. The survey results confirmed the anecdotal evidence of just how severe the sales losses were, while at the same time showing a much higher loss number for small retailers and restaurants than for other employer sectors.