Do you want to help make your town or city as strong as it can be?
There’s a simple way to do that: “Shop Local!”
By “local,” we mean at small, homegrown businesses such as family-owned grocery stores, specialty stores often featuring locally hand-crafted items, fashion boutique shops, realtors, electronics shops, hardware stores, farmers’ markets, book stores, cafes and coffee shops, and so much more.
Such local businesses are often called small “brick-and-mortar” shops as opposed to “big-box” chain stores.
Why shop local? There are many good reasons:
The local owners and employees of smaller stores have constant one-on-one interactions with their customers and thus get to know them and their needs and wants.
The people who own and work at such stores have detailed knowledge of the products they offer and so can match up customers’ needs precisely with what they want or need.
Shopping local fosters friendly, social connections among people, the kind of camaraderie that can strengthen the social bonds that can make a city stronger.
Small, local businesses are known for paying a hefty share of taxes for local projects and services. They also contribute generously to local nonprofits and local causes that include charities, youth groups, service groups, local police and fire departments, small-town newspapers and so much more. One study showed small businesses contribute 250 percent more to such groups than big-box store donations.
Local businesses create employment opportunities. In the United States there are more than 40 million small, local businesses that collectively employ almost 50 percent of the nation’s total workforce.
Money spent at local businesses is recirculated in a big way right back into the community, from hand to hand, place to place, locally. That cash flow benefits everybody in one way or another.
Many people assume items purchased at big-box stores or via online giants like Amazon are less expensive. That is not always the case.
Small, local businesses make so many purchases locally for what they need to sell. Located most often right within cities, such businesses can help prevent habitat loss and lessen pollution.
A good time to get into the good habit of shopping locally is “Small Business Saturday,” which is Nov. 25 this year. That annual day was begun in 2010 and promoted annually by the American Express credit-card company to encourage raising awareness of the social and economic impacts of small local businesses. On that day, the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, is one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Small businesses advertise via print, radio, TV or online the many items they have for sale on Small Business Saturday.
That day is an opportune time to pop into local stores, specialty shops, restaurants, cafes and more to get a good idea of the wide array of items they offer. It would definitely be an eye-opening experience for those shoppers who patronize mainly just the big-box stores.
Small Business Saturday is a good way to develop an ongoing dedication to “Shop Local.”
