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With one week left to complete the holiday shopping list, it can be tempting to shop online due to the efficiency and access. And while as someone who grew up in a rural town and currently lives in a small town, having access to items that aren’t available in the local shops can be a lifesaver. However, choosing to shop local provides not just for your wants and needs, but for the betterment and support of the community you love to live in as well.
This past Shop Small Saturday following Black Friday, in its third annual run, was met with great success for small business owners, but rather than making it an annual occasion, choosing to shop local regularly can do more good for the life you enjoy living.
Today I’d like to share with you three powerful reasons to make a conscious choice to shop local as much as your community provides. While I realize that it takes a bit more time, more money for the commute and may involve the stress of finding a parking spot, in the grand scheme of things, these are little sacrifices to create and maintain the community and town that you love living in. After all, while the virtual world offers wonderful riches, we can’t live there. And so we must be purposeful and cognizant of where we spend our money and what and whom it is supporting.
The Benefits of Shopping Local
1. Enhance Lifestyle
Living in a town with a safe community with beautiful parks, walkways, tree lined main streets and open business door fronts doesn’t just magically happen. It takes a thriving business community and citizens that understand that beautifying their town increases the value for everyone living there. When we choose to shop local, we support businesses and keep them in town. And when businesses stay, their taxes support local infrastructure.
2. Enhance Wealth
One of the most common investments many people make during their lifetime is purchasing a home, and while most towns and cities see a gradual appreciation in home values over the years, it can only be assured if the town has a thriving economy. By choosing to shop and dine locally, you keep your money in your community, thus allowing for businesses to be supported, thereby increasing home values. A win win for businesses and individuals who call the same town home.
3. Enhance Employment
In a recent article in The New York Times titled “A Formula for Happiness”, it was reported that while relationships, faith and community are widely accepted and understood as determiners for happiness, so too is work. The study revealed that feeling productive at the end of the day, feeling of value and knowing we’ve contributed positively for others and ourselves increases our happiness. And when we shop local more often, we increase the bottom lines of small businesses in our communities helping them to offer more employment to those in our own community and consequently increasing the quality of lives for those we call our neighbors.
Now, I realize that depending upon where you live, you can’t shop locally for everything, but for those items you can – kitchen supplies, pet supplies, food from local farmers, etc – make the effort to support what you wish to see more of. After all, it is when we choose to live consciously that we begin to see more of what we appreciate.
Happy holidays and happy shopping!
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~Why Not . . . Live a Life of Quality?
You can take buying local one step further by purchasing products from the community’s artisans and craftsmen!
Absolutely! One of my favorite boutiques offers handmade soaps, lotions and scents that I love to visit.
Shopping locally also means that you know the provenance of the products you are buying, such as locally produced cheese, meat and eggs (my top local products)
It is always a pleasure to stop into local cheese shops, chocolatier cafes and charcuteries knowing you are purchasing delicious, high-quality food and supporting the efforts of someone local. The best way to shop and eat when it’s available.
I think we are seeing a tiny step towards this way of thinking, but there is an awful long way to go. Cost is such a dominating factor when incomes are being squeezed so hard. However I know from personal experience, you can often get better quality and a great price by shopping locally.
Ali x
Alli,
So long as we keep the premise of quality over quantity in mind, often artisans can offer a better product which means we will have to pay for it. And if we want it to last or do a superior job, paying more is worth it so we don’t clutter our homes and incur frustrations with inferior products.
Thanks for sharing!
Yay Shannon! I applaud your position and appreciate this post! The more we advocate for our small businesses the more good we do for our environment (reduce the carbon impact of shipping and trucking) our health (retain nutrients in fresher food, reduce exposure to unsafe ingredients and chemicals), our communities, and our economy.
I love shopping in the little town where I live. So much more satisfying than the generic things at the mall. Lovely post.
I SO agree with you (being a small biz myself). I try to buy from small businesses whenever I can. I buy from local fishmongers and butchers etc Yes, it is a little more expensive but the service and quality is always better. Once you become a regular to these small businesses, they will often go out of their way to get you something specific that they don’t have in stock. I definitely try wherever I can to source locally and support small businesses.