Sometimes people don’t think of the consequences of their actions. Specifically buying local verses buying online. If you think about the impact of your local economy if all the stores closed, what would that mean and what would it look like? Well some would say, “It won’t make any difference, I don’t want to bother myself with going out to those stores, I would rather shop online and have FedEx or UPS bring it to me. What’s the problem?, besides, if I get free shipping and no sales tax, why would I go to the trouble to buy local?”
Here’s the problem : If you stop supporting the local retailers you first lose the quality products that are only sold in small shops. Secondly you lose the attention, expertise, and knowledge of your “local guy”. The third step down is having to deal with support systems ( that don’t work very well ) for warranties, or just simple “how to” questions over the phone with minimum wage customer service reps that don’t know anything about your product and really don’t care.
A big part of “losing local” is losing the quality products that are sold in these stores. Big box stores don’t sell quality. They don’t advertise durability, and are not interested in products that last a lifetime. They need you back next year to buy more and then the following year to do it again. High volume stores have to have high volume. Quality products don’t give them that volume. Local stores need happy customers, and repeat customers because they are satisfied, not because they were forced to purchase again. If your only choice becomes disposable products that don’t perform very well or last very long, you will only have your self to thank. And you will have landfills full of Chinese plastic because of it.
The topper to all this is an unforeseen issue that most skeptics never consider. The tax and cost of living factor. Think about the small amount of sales tax you pay, or the tax you avoid if you shop online. If all your local retailers were forced to close because of the lack of business, your local municipalities would have to find a new source of revenue. Your police dept, fire dept, garbage pick up, local road maintenance, etc are all paid for by tax revenue. If everybody stops buying local those taxes will have to come from you in different ways. You can be sure if a new tax is implemented it will not be as efficient as the current system.
Bottom line. Buying local supports your neighborhood and your state. It supports your neighbors that go to the same restaurants, grocery stores, schools, and doctors that you do. It keeps a healthy local community where you live and where your kids grow up. It keeps your cost of living at a reasonable level. And you get better products that work better and last longer which in turn saves you even more of your hard earned money.
There are even online stores now selling pre-packaged meals so you can eliminate you local grocer ! Can you imagine ? ….
