Patronize Small Businesses
The convenience of super stores can be enticing. I mean, getting your vegetables and shoes in the same building can seem too easy to pass up, especially when you’re as busy as everyone seems to be. I personally have a few problems with that: I don’t trust eating food that lives that close to shoes and I think shoes ought to be little pieces of revered and crafted foot art that have no business being shoved into one un-special corner of a vast warehouse-like store.
All sass aside, buying what you need from smaller, specialized businesses in your neighborhood works out for everyone. You tend to get more personalized service (this is their place. They aren’t just working there), you’re supporting actual human beings instead of big corporations and the money you spend is more likely to be put back into the community.
When the proprietors of a business live in the community they serve, they know their surroundings and generally, have a vested interest in maintaining its integrity. This could mean the difference between a small business becoming successful and restoring a great historic building to expand into and a huge, impersonal company coming into your unique neighborhood and putting up a cookie cutter mini-mall.
In short, by patronizing local businesses, you’re more likely to find cool, one-of-a-kind products and services, you’re supporting your hardworking neighbors rather than far-away executives and you’re investing in keeping your city or town unique and individually thriving.
Farmers Markets
I adore farmers markets. There’s something wonderful about being surrounded by the freshest produce that makes you feel un-packaged, un-processed, un-marketed-to and just a little more human. And when you can get all that from a simple shopping excursion, you know you’re onto something great. Most towns have at least one farmers market…if you look a bit. They usually aren’t set up to have huge advertising budgets but with just a moment of poking around, they’re never hard to find.
All of the aforementioned benefits of spending your hard earned cash at local establishments apply here too. What’s more, many markets have extensive community outreach programs such as cooking and organic gardening classes. Whether you partake in these or not, just being regularly around a farmers market will teach you more than you think about gardening and produce; you’ll learn what fruits and vegetables are freshest in what season, which kinds are indigenous to your area of the world, and how amazing real food can be.
With the rapid proliferation of chain restaurants and retail stores, it might seem like the whole world is becoming one big, ugly, homogenized strip mall. But the little guy is still fighting the good fight. And by keeping your money in your neighborhood as much as you can, you’re ensuring the continued prosperity and integrity of your community and supporting your fabulous enterprising neighbors at the same time.
