A healthy local economy is about more than what happens at the till.
Of course, sales matter. Businesses need customers. Employees need wages. Entrepreneurs need opportunities, storefronts need tenants, and neighbourhood commercial districts need people choosing to spend their time and money there.
But when we think about what makes a neighbourhood truly thrive, there is another kind of value moving around too.
It is the business that says, “We can help with that.” The neighbour who volunteers for an afternoon. The organization that lends something rather than requiring someone to buy it. The artist who brings something interesting or beautiful into a shared space. The local shop that points a customer down the street because another Broadway business has exactly what they are looking for. The meal shared with someone who arrived as a stranger.
Not every kind of value comes with a receipt. And on Broadway, that feels particularly important.
What If Value Is Something We Keep Moving?
In The Serviceberry, Robin Wall Kimmerer explores ideas of reciprocity, gratitude, abundance and gift economies.
One of the questions at the heart of those ideas is surprisingly relevant to a business district: what happens when we think about wealth as something that can circulate rather than simply accumulate?
That does not mean businesses stop being businesses or that money suddenly becomes unimportant. Broadway is a commercial district. Supporting successful businesses, attracting customers, encouraging entrepreneurship and bringing investment into the area are central to the work of a Business Improvement District.
But commerce does not happen separately from community. A customer becomes a regular. A business owner recommends another local shop. A restaurant or grocer contributes to a community gathering. A florist provides flowers. A bakery sends something to share. A business lends supplies or expertise. Someone sees an artist at an event and later purchases their work. A visitor comes for one thing, discovers three other businesses and returns another day with a friend.
Value keeps moving.
Broadway Already Has Plenty of Examples
You do not need to look far to see different versions of this idea operating in the Broadway District.
Steep Hill Food Co-operative is a business, but its co-operative structure also gives members an opportunity to participate in the organization itself. Steep Hill has been part of Broadway since the late 1970s and continues to operate as a neighbourhood-scale food co-op.
Handmade House is another kind of co-operative. It is artist-run and has operated for more than 50 years, selling work created by Saskatchewan makers. A purchase there does not simply move an object from a shelf into someone’s home; it connects a buyer with an artist working somewhere in this province.
The Saskatchewan Craft Council adds another layer. Its Broadway gallery and fine craft shop are part of a non-profit organization specifically working to help Saskatchewan craft artists flourish creatively and economically.
Then there is the Broadway Theatre, a community-owned, non-profit arts venue where buying a ticket helps sustain a cultural institution that has become part of the identity of the district.
And sometimes the example is much simpler.
Broadway Shoe Repair can help make something you already own useful again rather than immediately replacing it. The Better Good has built its retail model around more sustainable choices. Turning the Tide creates a place where books and ideas become conversation. Soul Paper creates opportunities for creativity as well as commerce.
None of these businesses are identical. That is the point.
A healthy local economy is an ecosystem.
Pull Up a Chair
The Broadway Community Table may be one of the clearest examples of what happens when those different parts of a neighbourhood come together.
At the first Community Table on August 15, approximately 40 people joined us at Grace-Westminster United Church.
Steep Hill Food Co-op provided ingredients for the meal. Nutana Bakery, The Better Good, Bill’s House of Flowers, Broadway Dental Group, Wren and other businesses and community partners contributed food, flowers, care items, resources and support.
Some people cooked. Some volunteered. Some contributed supplies. Some came with family. Some came alone. Some simply came for dinner. There was no single correct way to participate.
The first Community Table also resulted in five new community connections for Broadway, relationships that can lead to future partnerships, referrals, programming and resource sharing long after the dishes from one meal have been put away.
That may be one of the best examples of the kind of economy we are talking about. No one needed to contribute the exact amount they received. Everyone did not need to give in the same way. There was enough to share, so it was shared.
Places Have Value Too
Another useful idea comes from Eric Klinenberg’s Palaces for the People, which explores the importance of social infrastructure: the physical places that make it easier for people to meet, interact and build relationships.
That idea feels at home on Broadway. A theatre can be social infrastructure. So can a café, a bookstore, a church hall, a gallery, a patio, a park, even the familiar shop where someone knows your name.
Broadway’s relatively compact district puts restaurants, retailers, arts organizations, services, gathering spaces and community organizations alongside one another. The BBID currently represents businesses across dining, specialty retail, groceries and food, arts and culture, entertainment, professional services and many other categories.
Those places do more than occupy storefronts. They give us places to run into people, places to linger, places to learn, places to perform, places to ask for help, places to celebrate, places to eat together, and places where someone can show up alone and still be part of what is happening.
That is economic infrastructure and social infrastructure living in the same neighbourhood.
A Few Books for Thinking Differently About Community and Economy
For anyone curious about these ideas, Broadway happens to have an excellent place to keep reading.
Turning the Tide Bookstore at 615 Main Street is an independent bookstore known for a socially engaged and thoughtfully curated selection. Current inventory changes, but these are a few titles worth looking for or asking about:
The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer explores gift economies, reciprocity and abundance.
Braiding Sweetgrass, also by Kimmerer, goes much deeper into Indigenous knowledge, plants, science and reciprocal relationships.
Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth asks whether an economy can meet human needs without endlessly exceeding ecological limits.
Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg looks at social infrastructure and the places that help communities become stronger.
The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker explores why bringing people together matters and what makes gatherings meaningful.
And that might be another small example of a local economy at work: reading an idea, talking about it with someone, seeing your community a little differently, and then deciding what to do with it.
There Is a Place for You at the Table
The next Broadway Community Table takes place Saturday, September 26, 2026 at Grace-Westminster United Church.
There will be a hands-on cooking class, followed by a free community meal, activities and conversation. You can participate in the cooking, come for dinner, bring someone with you or arrive on your own.
You do not need to purchase anything. You do not need to bring anything. You do not need to prove that you have contributed enough to belong. Sometimes receiving is part of keeping value moving too.
A successful business district needs successful businesses.
It also needs people who care whether those businesses succeed. It needs organizations willing to collaborate, places where people can gather, artists, volunteers, neighbours and reasons to visit that cannot be shipped to your door.
Commerce matters. So does culture. So does community. Maybe the interesting part is what happens when all three keep circulating together.
Sometimes building a stronger local economy starts with something as simple as pulling up another chair.