Why You Should Shop Local

by Emily Hisel

The Winter Holiday Season--a time for cozy sweaters, eating too much pie, and of course gift giving. Every December, a vast majority of Americans allocate a portion of their budget to purchase gifts for their nearest and dearest. 

For some, gift giving is a fun adventure, but for others it may be more of a stressful affair. Personally, I find gift giving to be most rewarding when I am shopping at local small businesses. There are many reasons to buy local, but my biggest motivator for shopping small is that instead of lining the pockets of billionaire CEOs, I’m helping to provide a living wage for someone in my community. Sure, local goods may seem expensive compared to the Amazon Prime deals, but that extra expense is worth it when it could help pay for a little girl’s education or someone’s past due medical bills. If that alone isn’t reason enough for you to shop small, here are some more benefits to buying local:

-Support Community Groups

Small businesses donate 2.5x more per employee than large, national competitors.

-Reduce environmental Impacts

Locally owned businesses make more local purchases — requiring less transportation — and set up shop in town or city centers which generally means less sprawl, congestion, habitat loss, and pollution.

-Create Jobs

Up to 90 percent of net new jobs in the U.S. are created by locally owned businesses.

-Better Public Services

Local businesses mean a stronger tax base and better use of public services compared to nationally owned stores. This translates into better schools, transportation, and emergency response services for you and your family.

-Keep Money Within The Community

When you buy locally, the small business you’re making your purchase from certainly benefits, but the benefits keep growing. A small business that does well is likely to hire more people, who then spend more money in the community.

-More Diverse Choices

Each small business in our community is unique, offering a true connection with customers and a real understanding of their visitors’ needs. In addition, local businesses are typically far more flexible, adjusting to meet the immediate needs of customers much more quickly than giant national chains can do. 

-Keep Businesses Alive

With the Pandemic hitting hard and winter being the “slow season” for most businesses, your holiday purchases can be the thing that keeps a business afloat during tough financial times. 

-Networking

When you shop small you are more likely to strike up a conversation with an employee or owner, which is socially rewarding and also beneficial for relationship building amongst community leaders. 

So as you can see, the pros of shopping at small businesses significantly outweighs any possible cons. If you already make a point to shop local as much as possible, give yourself a pat on the back, you good community contributor, you! 

The holiday season is about giving and receiving, and before Jeff Bezos and his predecessors got their greedy hands in the game, shopping locally was really the only way. So this year--and really every year--let’s go old school by buying from our local markets and makers!