Locally Owned Businesses VS Corporate Chains
One of the important ways I try to involve my values in my financial decisions is by supporting locally-owned small businesses.
I try to do this in my personal and business spending. I feel I am reinvesting in the community. I pulled this quote from an article I read recently. “Congress has before it a new legislative effort to help small businesses get credit and expand in the current economic environment.” Do you know that small business like me do not want more debt. We do not want more credit. We want to see our community support us and other locally owned and operated businesses. Their confidence in us and our services will help us produce a modest profit and eliminate the need for government intervention in our business. There are a number of reasons I feel strongly about locally-owned businesses. First and foremost I am a locally-owned and operated business. Studies have shown that when a dollar is spent at a locally-owned business, about half (or more) stays and re-circulates in the local economy, which is twice or three times as much as for chains. Part of this is because locally-owned businesses are more likely than corporate chains to purchase their supplies and products from other local businesses. Also, since the profits go to the owner who lives in the community, the owner spends much of his or her earnings in the area and pays taxes which stay in the community. Corporate profits mostly go to national-level management and to shareholders, dispersed all over the country.
Also, locally-owned businesses involve local decision-making. The owner of the business lives in the community, and cares about the interests of the area. They are more likely to make local charitable donations. They're also more likely to pay higher wages to their employees, people they interact with on a regular basis and who are often their neighbors. And they are more willing to stay in their own community for their own convenience and to serve local needs, as opposed to chain stores which may close their doors because they see a more profitable opportunity three towns away.
What do you think? How do you approach these issues? What are your experiences with local businesses versus chains, as a consumer, an employee, and/or an owner?