Shop local!
It should be obvious that shopping at local businesses strengthens local economies. Each dollar spent at a local business returns three times more money to the local economy than a dollar spent at a chain store and almost 50 times more than buying from an online mega-retailer.
But there are many more reasons than smart economics for shopping locally.
Here are just some of them, according to the American Independent Business Alliance:
- The multiple casual encounters at neighborhood-scale businesses and the public spaces near them foster relationships and social cohesiveness, just as they did in so many grocery stores and shops in cities before the corporate wave of big-box stores and malls altered the face of the nation.
- Independent local businesses, because of their unique characteristics, help give a city its distinct personality and style. They typically carry more locally produced products and create less traffic and air pollution.
- Local businesses generate more revenue per sales dollar, and in both direct and indirect ways, they help keep local taxes lower, partly because they put less demand on roads, sewers and safety service.
- Not only do independent businesses employ more people directly per dollar of revenue, they also are the customers of local printers, newspapers, other media outlets, accountants, wholesalers, farms, attorneys and more, thus expanding opportunities for local entrepreneurs.
- Buying local can ensure better-quality products and accountability for the products sold by local business people who care about and aim to please their local customers.
- Many local businesses contribute lots of money and volunteerism to city projects and good local causes, thus improving local cities in a variety of quality-of-life ways. In fact, studies show small businesses donate more than twice the amount of money per sales dollar than big businesses to local non-profit, events, charity causes and teams.
- Local ownership means residents with roots in a city are involved in key development decisions that shape our lives and our local environment.
Long story short, local businesses are the economic bedrock of a city. By shopping locally whenever possible, we are all helping to keep that bedrock solid and strong into the future. Thus, by shopping locally we are helping ourselves, our well-being, and showing pride in our own cities and neighborhoods.
So please remember: Shop Local!
