Give back to the place you call home. Shop local to support ‘lifeblood of the community’ | Editorial

The holiday season is upon us, a time for celebrating, spending time with family and giving gifts. Gift shoppers – and those looking for a discount gift for themselves – have no end of options. They’ll find many of them locally.

Black Friday, once a single day, has become weeks of sales and bargains.

We encourage Tri-Citians to look beyond online mega-retailers this year. Doing so not only supports small businesses owned and staffed by your neighbors, but also boosts the local economy and benefits the environment.

Online shopping is alluring. It’s convenient, offers endless choices and has overnight delivery.

But shopping online comes at the expense of small business owners who pour their hearts and souls into providing quality goods and personalized service.

Local businesses are the lifeblood of the community. When they thrive, the community thrives.

National chains and massive online retailers continue to squeeze local shops, many of which are still recovering from the pandemic’s disruptions. They need local support to survive.

More than half of Americans own or work for a small business, according to the U.S. Small Business Association, and small, local businesses create two-thirds of new jobs.

By shopping locally, people help those businesses remain open and pay employees. Money spent at a local business flows back into the local economy, a far better place for it than the coffers of some distant online retailer.

Researchers have found that about two-thirds of every dollar spent in a locally-owned business stays within the community. Less than half remains locally when spent at a national chain or online retailer.

Local businesses pay local taxes, funding parks, transportation infrastructure and public services. They donate to charities and sponsor youth and recreational sports teams. Their employees eat lunch at local restaurants.

When you buy a handcrafted item from a local artisan or a book from an independent bookstore, you’re not just buying a product, you’re fostering creativity and entrepreneurship.

The experience is better, too. There’s a personal touch when shopping locally that no blinking cursor and search bar can provide.

Visiting local shops is also a great way to see people you know at this cheerful time of year, whether it’s a long-forgotten friend from high school who happens to be working the till or a neighbor who stopped in at the same store.

It’s also much better for the environment. Goods made locally from local materials are the greenest of all. Choose them if you can.

Even if you are buying something made far away, it’s better for the planet to do so at a local shop. Studies have documented that the last few miles of delivering online purchases generate far more emissions than when buying the same thing locally.

There is also far less waste when shopping locally. Packages shipped by online retailers come in cardboard boxes, often with plastic bubbles for padding. The experience of a small item needlessly shipped in a comically and wastefully large box is all too common.

Even bargain hunters need not default to big online retailers. Many local shops sell online and offer Black Friday sales of their own. It’s worth checking them out first.

Every dollar you spend locally is a vote for the kind of community you want to live in.

Do you want to live in a place where big box stores offer the most commoditized, generic products or where local artisans, workers and business owners thrive?

Let’s all make this holiday season one of generosity – not just in giving gifts but also in giving back to the place we call home.

This story was originally published November 29, 2024 at 5:00 AM.