Despite the fact that I intellectually know that every product we use in our homes and businesses was on a truck at some point, until the Canadian truckers took a stand against tyranny (as our American truckers are rumored to do as well), I didn’t ever sit down to really think about their impact.
That concept may sound strange considering that The American Central Store is an online retail business, and every one of our great manufacturers ships out to our awesome customers by way of some kind of truck or delivery vehicle… you would think that it would be top-of-mind for me to appreciate the drivers and all members of the trucking and delivery companies and private contractors. But I didn’t. I took them for granted. I feel very bad about that. Our company is still fairly new, but I am not new! I am in my sixth decade!!
I can only imagine that the truckers have seen first-hand the devastating impact of the illegal Constitution-violating mandates which have decimated so many businesses, business owners and employees since the first quarter of 2020. The American Central Store is headquartered in the State of Louisiana, which has suffered tremendously from the governor operating in lock-step with the bad guys behind these shutdowns and now trying to do so with other mandates.
In doing my personal end-of-year income tax tasks, I ran across receipts of three of my long-time favorite local restaurants who were unable to survive the tyranny. First they were smashed by the business shutdowns and requirement of limited operations (under threat of having licenses pulled) and then Hurricane Ida also played a role for two of them. It was just too much for them. It has been recently stated that 25% of business in Louisiana have closed their doors due to the shutdowns and mandates AND lack of employees. This is NOT how it's all supposed to work. We need to fix this.
Those businesses didn’t just shut their doors, the owners likely spent every penny they had in order to stay alive and pay their employees and vendors. But when a tremendous power is intent on killing your business… it’s very, very difficult to survive.
I am grateful to the truckers for bringing our attention to their plight, which is the plight of every small business in The United States (and Canada).
I don’t know how to better support them going forward, but I will learn now.
Hug a trucker. They really need it right now.
