This Holiday season, there are things we can do to help our communities and fight the unequal distribution of wealth without donating to non-profits or responding to a candidate’s email.
With minimal effort, we can support and improve our neighborhood, make our friends and family happy, help our local economy, and reward innovation and creativity while taking a few pennies out of the pocket of Jeff Bezos and other oligarchs. All we have to do is decide to shop locally, from independent stores.
Of course, many people find it easier to shop at Amazon or other “online” mega businesses. And in the short term, that is often true. But if you plan to live in your community for a few years and want a vibrant shopping strip, shopping at Amazon undercuts your goals. The more people who shop at Amazon, the fewer stores on shopping strips, making the neighborhood less desirable.
That is only the beginning of what shopping locally does. In the golden economic age of America, there were many independent stores and no billionaires. As multi-national corporations built mega malls, with tax breaks from local governments, the money the independent stores used to make consolidated into the hands of fewer and fewer people. Instead of thousands of small shop owners making an upper-middle-class life, there were a handful of billionaires and millions of people unable to buy a home, put their children through college, and save for a comfortable retirement.
With so much surplus, the billionaires not only bought mansions, resort mansions, mega yachts and private jets, they also bought governments. Hate or love him, without the billionaire Elon Musk, it is unlikely there would be a President-elect Trump.
As a consumer advocate, one of the things people often say to me is, “Yes, but the prices online and at Walmart are lower. ” And while that isn’t always true, it is sometimes. We shouldn’t shop for the lowest price but for the best value. Even at 50% off, a suit isn’t a good buy unless it fits you. A $100.00 pair of shoes that lasts for 1 year is more expensive than a $200 pair of shoes that lasts for 5.
For something to be the best value, it must do what you want. That is another advantage of an independent store. The owner and manager of the store are, more than likely, experts in what they are selling. As they decide what products to put on the shelf, they compare them, not on price, but on value. When you enter the local toy store, the owner has decided what toys to stock, knowing their local buyers. The salesperson can ask you about who you are buying a present for, their age, interests and what price range.
When you shop at a giant corporate store, the person deciding on what to offer is focused on the profit margin from each item, not what best suits local consumers. The “salesperson” in those stores is often without an economic interest in the store’s success or paid well enough to develop expertise. They are not allowed the time to “wait on you” and rarely can offer helpful advice on why one product is better for you than another.
The Teamsters Union, Local 1932, urges people to shop locally for ten reasons.
1. Local Character and Prosperity
In an increasingly homogenized world, communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character have an economic advantage.
2. Community Well-Being
Locally owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a web of economic and social relationships, and contributing to local causes.
3. Local Decision-Making
Local ownership ensures that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions.
4. Keeping Dollars in the Local Economy
Compared to chain stores, locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local economy, enriching the whole community.
5. Job and Wages
Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in some sectors, provide better wages and benefits than chains do.
6. Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship fuels America’s economic innovation and prosperity and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.
7. Public Benefits and Costs
Local stores in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls.
8. Environmental Sustainability
Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers-which, in turn, are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.
9. Competition
A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long term.
10. Product Diversity
A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based, not on a national sales plan, but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.
There are independent stores in all different parts of the Delaware Valley, not just Chestnut Hill, Old City, Manayunk, and South Philly. A shopping trip to any of Philadelphia’s great neighborhoods will be well worth it. You can even get a meal at a non-chain, non-fast-food restaurant for a reasonable price or bring home a treat for your holiday meal.
If you want to take some money out of the pockets of the Billionaires this Holiday season, shop locally. Use the expertise of the independent store owner to buy the right gift for the best value. And if you have a favorite store you would like to share with Hall Monitor readers, please let us know. We would be happy to share it with our readers.
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