(Put this in “great debates” not “politics” because I’m interested in the microeconomics of the local economy, not the politics of how much money should have been given or to whom).
My family got our ~$2K total stimulus money. In truth, we’ve had a good year in terms of straight earnings (jobs went 100% virtual with no loss of work and modest raises, and our largest family expense - travel - is zeroed out). So in that sense we didn’t “need” these funds to make up personal covid-related losses. If we’re treating these funds as 100% “charity”, but our sole goal with this “charity” is to maximally stimulate the local economy (and any goods we get out of it are incidental to that goal), what’s the best way to maximize the stimulus in a U.S. city of ~300,000? Buy local goods? Spend on service-heavy sectors like restaurants? Donate (and to what type of charity)? Pay down some debt? (likely not that last one, the debt holders aren’t local). I know that all of these stimulate the economy to a certain extent, but if I’m trying to (locally) maximize, what’s the best bet?
Spend the money at local mom n pop places that are not only struggling bet get a lot of the products and services locally. I know a lot of restaurants that are down well more than half (and catering halls that have gone from 10-20 parties a week to 2 or 3 a month). Spend your money with them, they’ll buy some of their products from a shop like mine, we both employ a lot of high school kids which means extra money in their pockets etc.
In short, if you want to stimulate the local economy, stay away from chains. Franchises will keep it more local. But it’s the one-off mom n pop places that are getting hit the hardest and probably spend the most of their money locally as well.
I don’t know that donating is really going to stimulate the local economy unless it’s the type of charity that throws events that require a lot of resources. ie They sponsor a marathon each year and get (buy, not have donated) t-shirts, food, water etc from other local businesses.
Paying down debt isn’t going to stimulate anything more than putting the money in your savings account will.
TL;DR My suggestion, get curbside food from the local restaurants a few times a week.
Eat at (or order carryout) from locally owned diners and tip very, very well. These are your neighbors and they have been directly subjected to quite a large hit in income.
Besides your spending with local businesses (including farmers’ markets, if any), donate to local food banks and shelters. That will get resources moving directly to the part of the population that needs them most. Kill two birds with one stone by paying local restaurants and stores to provide some nice stuff for the staff and users of a local food bank or shelter.
Also, does your local utilities company have a donation program to help cover utility bills for those who are struggling? Might throw a few bucks their way as well.
If you have any municipal organizations that are working to keep services afloat in a virtual format during the pandemic (online school, kids’ groups, etc.), they could use some help too.
Overall, the best thing in the long run for a local economy is keeping as many heads as possible above water for the duration of a crisis, so they don’t have so far to recover when the crisis is over. If we let everything just collapse and close down when disaster strikes, then it’s all got to be rebuilt from scratch afterwards, which takes more money and effort and time.