I went to small businesses in Jamaica Plain on February 23.
Jamaica Plain has many small businesses, and I looked around many shops. For example, bakery, grocery store, coffee shop, toy store, second-hand cloth store, and smoothie shop. Small business has pros and cons. Both employees and customers are from the neighborhood, so it has a close relationship with local people. Also, it uses local food such as coffee, chocolate, and honey to get it at an affordable price and support locals. Therefore, it makes a local community better. I think they are different from large businesses. In addition, it has positive effects on the environment. For example, reduce the use of cars by not installing parking lots, selling reused clothes, and reducing food containers’ plastic. On the other hand, small business has some hard things. It is challenging for small businesses, especially grocery stores to get money because of the expensive land prices and less profit. However, they consider the good way that they bought a land space and divided it into several stores. I learned that small business has some difficult things, but it makes a community and has good effects on local people and the environment.
Yuka Muramatsu
