Local businesses are the lifeblood of any small community. They boost our economy, they offer goods and services that we might not otherwise be able to find in the confines of our county boundaries, and the owners are usually friends, neighbors and acquaintances who we know and who often know us — people who, in most cases, support local schools and charities in our midst.
That’s why we often tout the importance of shopping local, returning a portion of the retail dollars we spend each week to the people who help to make our local communities strong.
That message has never been more important than it is now, with the need to shop local proving as vital as it has ever been to businesses hit hard by the push toward big-named chains, online shopping and the Amazon craze.
Many of our mom-and-pops don’t have that online presence, and thrive solely off the strength of their in-store sales. And those who do have that presence don’t usually experience the robust shopping that the big-named online folks do, nor the big box stores.
That is unfortunate for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that these are the people who have earned our loyalty by virtue of their own.
It is our hope that this Christmas season, and beyond, that you do your best to patronize locally-owned businesses. Many will shop for you, and have it waiting. They want to accommodate if you will let them. It doesn’t hurt to ask.
We are hoping the dollars that will be spent in the next few weeks, on the busiest shopping days of the year, will be dropped in local cash registers, as we make purchases from downtown business and stores in Mount Olive, Faison, Calypso and Warsaw.
Many of those local dollars will likely be reverted back to Beta and Boosters clubs, or pay for a local sports team’s jerseys, or bolster scholarships. Spending our dollars locally is a way to return loyalty to those who support our community’s endeavors and, at the same time, let them know we want their businesses in our towns.
We often say we do, but then fail to support them. Words are great, but it is the action of spending dollars in those stores that ensures hardware and grocery stores, jewelry stores and gas stations, restaurants and furniture stores remain open and remain vibrant parts of our communities.
If we don’t support and cherish local business today, they very well may not be there tomorrow. It’s just that simple.
We encourage local shopping each and every week, but we place special emphasis during the holidays and renew that plea now more than ever. Through our support, we demonstrate how glad we are that they decided to open businesses here, and help them continue on.
