Why Buy Local

Buying local, shopping local and keeping money local to your community certainly has its advantages. Web sites like Mad City Merchants and Buy Local Madison promote the buy local movement that is becoming so important in our country today. Buying local reinforces your local economy in a multitude of ways. Here are nine reasons to keep your local merchants in mind every time you go to make a purchase.

Improving Quality of Life

By using the businesses where we live we give back to our community. We spend money at the corner convenience store or use the local furnace repair shop we add to their business allowing them to grow which in turn gives back to the local economy through added taxes used to improve roads, parks and other infrastructure that improves quality of life.

More Jobs

Small local businesses nationally provide most of our job opportunities available to residents. Shopping and doing business locally allows businesses to grow and expand. This growth often leads to these local businesses hiring more people. That hiring brings more jobs to the local economy and as a result increases employment and the number of people who can spend money locally, adding more to the local economy.

Better Service

There's little doubt that you get better service from local business than a national chain that has few ties to the community. Dennis Viney, owner of Viney's Parts and Service in Cottage Grove says excellent customer service is essential to his business since the people he services are not only his customers but his neighbors. Viney is like most local business owners in that he gets to know his customers on a personal level. Because of this he gives his customers an added level of service tough to find at a Wal Mart service station or other national chain detached from the local community it serves.

Reduced Environmental Impact

Buying local reduces transport costs. Cherries bought at the DaneCounty Farmer's Market from a local farmer require significantly less gas to transport than buying the same cherries from a market that bought cherries shipped in all the way from Michigan.

Maintaining Unique Communities

Homogeny is becoming the rule in many communities these days. The next time you're on a road trip notice the signs you see dotting the exits for McDonald's, Shell and Applebee's. These chain establishments are creating cloned communities throughout the United States. These businesses are fine but it is the local businesses that give the communities their personality. By promoting our local businesses we promote and grow the unique qualities of our communities which are rapidly vanishing. This promotes tourism since people are often looking to visit someplace rather than anyplace.

Community Investment

Local businesses are a good investment because they are loyal to the businesses they serve. As mentioned before local business owners often live local and so they have local ties. They have a vested interest in keeping happy customers, more likely to investing the community and are unlikely to pull up stakes and move to another city.

Better Selection

Local businesses purchase products based on local demand rather than national sale statistics. Having the advantage of focusing on those products allows local businesses to have a larger selection of goods and services that local people want. Ken's Meats in Monona is a good example of this. This local market has served Monona, Wisconsin for more than 40 years by giving people the quality meats, deli items and groceries they want and need.

Promote Prosperity

People crave originality, and entrepreneurs and skilled workers are no exception. Buying local creates an environment where these professionals want to establish their one-of-a-kind businesses. This is the kind of fertile environment that promotes healthy growth.

It's Better for You

Buying things like local foods is better for you. Produce grown locally travels fewer miles so time from harvest to dinner plate is shorter. The less time out of the ground means the food is fresher and there are more nutrients.