Why Shop Local:

When consumers choose to shop locally the result is keeping more money in circulation within the community, which ultimately contributes to the growth of the community. This money can then be used in positive ways to help pay for anything from a new bus station, to a new children’s park. Community improvement projects are only the beginning. Small businesses are the largest employers nationally. With local money being retained and reinvested within the community new job opportunities will begin to emerge. People will soon begin to emigrate into the community in search of the abundance of job opportunities being created, resulting in growing the population of the local community. As the local community continues to grow it will no go unnoticed by others, and will eventually become more important and prominent to people in other communities. The area will eventually become a location other people want to visit on the map, as a result a tourism industry will begin to develop and will bring a huge influx of income to the community from people spending their money on the communities’ hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions, etc.

For every one-hundred dollars spent at a locally owned business, it is estimated that twenty-seven dollars leave the community, and seventy-three of those dollars are preserved within the local economy. Those figures are a great reason why consumers should choose to shop locally. When compared to the estimates of shopping at a non-locally owned business there is a significant difference. It is estimated that when a consumer spends one-hundred dollars at a non-locally owned business, fifty-seven of those dollars leave the community, and only forty-three dollars remain within the community. By choosing to shop locally seventy-three percent of the money you spend is preserved in the community on average. When shopping at a non-locally owned store only forty-three prevent of the money spent stays in the community.

Obviously buying locally is also better for the economy. Foods that are not grown locally have to be driven, shipped, and flown across the nation, and often worldwide. Every aspect of the transportation of these goods use fossil fuels, and in retrospect produces pollution from the burning of these fossil fuels. Just the transportation of non-local foods in itself is a major contributor to global warming. However, when produce and foods are purchased from a local grower or provider much less fossil fuels are used, simply because the goods are already in a location available to the consumer. As a result fewer pollutants are emitted into the atmosphere, water, and ground. Locally-grown foods, opposed to those grown elsewhere, do not have to be transported internationally; at most they simply have to be driven a few minutes across town to become accessible to the consumer.