Massachusetts Retailers Survey
February 2025
Executive Summary
At the request of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts (RAM), the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute (UMDI) has completed a report based on a survey conducted with 635 small business owners across the Commonwealth, seeking to better understand the challenges and unique issues facing these businesses. The Donahue Institute’s research develops data on small business owners throughout the Commonwealth for both RAM’s membership, and for related partners around the state such as regional chambers of commerce.
This small business survey offers an overview of the challenges and concerns of local retail small businesses in Massachusetts. This confidential, online survey asked retailers throughout Massachusetts a series of questions about their attitudes towards health insurance, retail sales, costs, and profits. The survey also asked questions about the impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on businesses and what retailers thought are the most pressing challenges they face currently.
The following report provides information to help highlight and understand the concerns of local retail small businesses in Massachusetts, to help inform future avenues for advocacy with state and local officials and identify policy areas for further examination by RAM in the coming years. Through its survey responses, the Donahue Institute found:
- About three out of every four retailers (76 percent) report that their costs of operation have risen at a faster rate than their sales since 2019, limiting their profitability.
- Inflation, interest rates, and general cost of living are the biggest challenges retailers report experiencing
- Small business owners report that lowering taxes would help their overall sales, profits, and costs
- Approximately 63 percent of small business owners offer health insurance to their employees
- Approximately 17 percent of retailers disclosed that they would close or sell their business if the minimum wage were raised in Massachusetts
- 51 percent of retailers report being likely to close or sell their business in the next five years, with approaching retirement age, and high-cost business challenges as the main factors behind their decision
