Why Shop Local?

As Small Business Saturday has come and gone, it is important to continue supporting our local businesses. After all, Small Business Saturday is only one day out of the year. What about the rest of the year? While rather complex and comprised of many moving parts, the trickle down effect of small businesses has a profound effect on the quality of life within a community. Small businesses are owned by members of the local community. They hire other members of the community to be their employees. They also support other local businesses by contracting for services, (accounting, maintenance, websites, etc.), purchasing goods (coffee, pizza, newspapers, supplies, etc.) and making significant civic contributions (donations, volunteerism, paying taxes, etc.) All of these efforts contribute to the vitality of the local economy, retaining wealth locally and encouraging more local spending. When we choose to allocate our expenditures to large businesses or via online purchases with mass merchants, those funds often leave the community immediately, eliminating any discernible benefit to the local economy. Instead, those funds are redirected to other economies via corporate executives and shareholders with little to no local trickle down. While Small Business Saturday shines a light on this dynamic one day each year, it is up to us to "keep it local" and shop local year round. In doing so, we are supporting friends and neighbors that pay taxes in our community, have children that may be classmates with your children, support other local businesses and provide a direct benefit to the well-being of the immediate community.