7 Reasons to Buy Local ...

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If you buy your produce from a local farmer, or eat at a local café, or join a small gym, you’re helping to keep your friends and neighbors in business. These people live in your town, their children go to the same schools as your children, and you often wait behind them in line at the post office. Every dollar you spend with them means they get to stay part of your community!

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Wal-Mart is the single biggest private employer in the world, with more earnings annually than anyone else. Do they really need the money you spend there? No, they don’t. Furthermore, their trade and employment practices, which some call unfair, are the reason they can afford to sell you that cheap $5 tee-shirt… which will fall apart the third time you wash it… and there are really no advantages to joining Bally’s over joining the small, local gym that’s owned by a guy who lives around the block.

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Buying locally also means you’re not driving very far (you might even be riding your bike or walking!), which means you’re not emitting nearly as many pollutants into the air… which is better for the environment!

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If you’re shopping locally, you’re probably walking to the shop, or you might be riding your bike, which means you’re getting exercise. If you’re buying local produce at a farm stand, then you’re also getting a healthier tomato or strawberry, grown with far fewer chemicals, and with more natural anti-oxidants!

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When you buy locally, chances are, you pay a little sales tax, and those tax dollars stay in your community. This means you’re supporting your local schools, non-profit groups, hospitals, and even the local roads commissions… fantastic!

Do you want to drive across town just for the pleasure of shopping at a dirty, crowded, impersonal Wal-Mart? Or would you rather stop at the fruit stand right on your way home, or have dinner at that little café in your own downtown? It’s so much more convenient to shop where you live!

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If you’re shopping locally, you will soon develop a good, friendly relationship with the grocer, the farmer, the café owner, the used bookstore lady. They want and expect you to make suggestions and special requests, so you’ll stay a happy repeat customer! This is good for you, because you get that new menu item you want, and good for them because they get to stay in business!

Once you consider all of these good reasons to shop locally, you might not ever want to set foot in a Wal-Mart again! Do you shop locally? What’s your favorite local business? Do you have any other good reasons that you like to shop near where you live? Please share!

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