Our Local Bank Offers Advice On How to Start Supporting Your Community Today
Spend time in any suburban or urban area in your state, and you’ll understand how much Americans rely on convenience. Everything is within reach: grocery stores, retail stores, gas stations, and restaurants of all stripes. With the click of a button on your phone, drivers deliver these goods to your front door, including items you’ve ordered from online marketplaces with no nearby physical presence.
Shopping national chains and online retailers may make life easier, but this way of life can be detrimental to smaller communities and local businesses. Although it’s easy to become dependent on the convenience of spending in big-box stores, shopping locally benefits the people we hold most dear: our neighbors.
Keep reading to learn why our community bank believes shopping locally matters and how you can develop local shopping habits today.
Strengthen Your Local Economy
Shopping at a locally owned business keeps more money in your community. Your purchases today become that local business’s investments tomorrow. When a local business brings in profits, that money can transform into more jobs, lead to improvements in your town through sales and business taxes, and even policy changes in your town that business owners can advocate for. Your support of local businesses also encourages others to start their own businesses, and soon you’ll have a variety of options for local shopping, right in your town.
Discover Goods and Services You Can’t Get Anywhere Else
When you shop at a giant chain store, the merchandise you buy is the same as those you would find at that store’s location anywhere else in the country. When you shop locally, you’re more likely to find products made by hand or selected with care by a business owner who may have decades of experience in their trade. This local business owner may even be carrying on a business legacy in your community.
You’ll also be able to tell the difference in quality between produce from a chain store and vegetables that are fresh from the farm. The same goes for services: would you rather get advice on your car engine from a family auto repair business that’s been around for 50 years or from someone working out of a big corporation’s training manual?
Personalized Customer Service
Good-old-fashioned customer service sometimes seems like a lost art in our world today. Yet you’re more likely to experience personalized care and help at a local business. When you shop locally, you get to interact closely with the shop owner and employees, who ensure that your needs are met. They get to know you by name, know your preferences, and even start to learn more about your life as you continue to visit.
For example, when you choose to bank locally, you get to know your banking team as you experience many of life’s major milestones. A community bank can help you with your first free checking account, taking out your first mortgage loan, or securing a loan to help grow your own local business. Having a local partner who wants to help you and celebrate your successes is a priceless feeling.
Empower Your Neighbors and Strengthen Ties
When you get personalized service from a local business, you feel a sense of community and belonging. This feeling simply can’t be recreated when you walk through the sliding glass doors of a national chain or open an app on your smartphone.
This sense of belonging also extends to the owner of the local businesses in your area. Shopping for their goods and services is a way of telling these business owners that they matter and that you support them. You’re letting these business owners know that their hard work is valuable. When people treat each other this way, community bonds get stronger.
Ways You Can Make An Effort to Start Shopping Locally Today
Deciding to shop at more local businesses only requires a few simple changes that you can incorporate right away:
- Eat local: Instead of choosing to dine at a national chain, find a local restaurant as your go-to destination.
- Support farmers: Visit farmers’ markets or check if your local farmers have options for selling directly to you.
- Look for handmade goods: Purchase gifts and handmade products from local artisans and boutiques.
- Bank locally: Open a checking or savings account with a community bank.
- Do your research: Search phrases, like “local bank,” in your favorite search engine to find local options for goods and services in your area.
- Let others know: Leave reviews online and spread the word about the great service you received from your local businesses.
- Shop locally in larger stores: Even when you find yourself in a national chain store, check if they carry local products. You can research online to see if these local businesses also have their own stores or online marketplaces, so you can buy directly from them. You can even request that the big-box store stocks a locally made product that you use.
You’ve chosen a tight-knit community to live in because you value the feeling of closeness and the traditions that make these places special. When you shop locally, you are taking action to keep your community strong, unique, and connected.