Shop local: Here's 35 Metro Detroit boutiques and businesses to get you started

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(WWJ) Metro Detroit is home to thousands of small businesses. They are run and staffed by our neighbors, friends, family and members of our community.

Community leaders say the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic is hitting local shops especially hard.

“62% of U.S. small businesses with fewer than 100 employees need to see consumer spending return to pre-COVID levels by the end of 2020 in order to stay in business,” Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter said.

A Yelp survey said in September nearly 164,000 small businesses have closed nationwide due to the pandemic with at least 60% of those closures expected to be permanent. With record COVID-19 cases across the country, small business owners and economists fear that number will be far higher.

More than 800 small business here in metro Detroit have disappeared from Yelp as of mid-July, according to the Detroit Free Press.

This makes it more important than ever this year to shop local.

While it is impossible to give a shout-out to every one of the unique boutiques across Metro Detroit, we have compiled a list of 35 to get you started.

Metro Detroiters have put their Motor City grit, heart and soul into all of the businesses listed below.

The following businesses were all founded in Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw or Wayne County. They were all given at least 4 stars on Google. From a Shelby Township woman who donates one third of her proceeds to a charity dear to the customer's heart to a company that offers employment opportunities for people with disabilities; these local businesses’ impact and originality is boundless.

Bath and Body:

ArtiSun Bath and Skincare, Novi