In today’s modern world, where shopping is literally at your fingertips, we know how easy it can be to forget the impact that buying foreign products has, not only on the local economy, but the economy in other countries as well. Buying foreign goods has a much larger impact on the world than what the average consumer may be aware of.
While it may seem as though buying products online, or products that are imported from other countries, is the better option, that simply isn’t the case. Just because these products are cheaper and may feel temporarily better for your pocketbook, doesn’t mean that these purchases won’t have a negative effect on the world around you, not to mention your finances, as well as other areas of your life later on down the road. Many foreign products are cheaper not only because they are constructed from poor quality materials but because the people who are making them are only earning cents on the dollar for every hour of work. On top of paying fair wages to their employees, here are some of the major reasons why shopping local is so important.
Better Products, Produced Locally
One of the downfalls of foreign products can be the quality of material used in the production of the item. The saying “you get what you paid for” is only too true when it comes to buying cheap products. The reason why products made overseas are cheaper is because they are usually made with the poorest quality of materials, causing them to break down faster and costing you more money in the long run as you are constantly replacing the same product. The majority of local business owners strive to only use the highest quality of materials available. The same can be said for shopping at your local market. The food you find at these small businesses mainly come from local farmers, so they can be guaranteed to be much fresher than something you pick up in a large chain grocery store. Not to mention much healthier for your family as well as they often are not treated with harsh chemicals.
Buying Local is Better for Your Local Economy
On top of the improved quality you get by making purchases that support local businesses, buying local is also better for the surrounding economy. When a consumer buys products or services supporting small businesses in the local community, then more money stays in the community. In a recent study, researchers found that when buying local for every $100 spent $68 of that remained in the surrounding economy, compared to only $43 when spent at a big retailer or box chain store. This is important because local businesses have the incentive to support other local businesses. Not only that but buying local helps to decrease unemployment and provide more jobs to people in your community. It is estimated that small businesses employ over 77 million Americans every year and have been responsible for over 65% of new jobs created in the United States for the past decades.
Shopping Local is Better for the Planet
Buying local products and services is much better for the planet. There are a list of reasons why shopping and buying from local businesses is better for the environment. One of the biggest reasons is decreasing the amount of pollution caused by transporting foreign products back and forth across the country. This has a very harmful impact on the world around us. Buying local also helps to reduce the amount of packaging and waste associated with the product. This is also in part because the products do not have to be packaged for mass transportation. Along the same lines, less traffic will be out on the roads, which helps give you an easier ride on the way to work.
It Saves You Money
A lot of time, food products at local markets are cheaper because they don't have expensive chemicals sprayed on them and they haven’t been packaged and transported across the country, leading them to be fresher, too. The same can be said for other locally made products, as instead you are only paying for the quality of the material and the final product, instead of the increased mark up of packaging and travel expenses. Simply put, when you buy local products, they are better crafted and built to last. Not only that, but you can rest easy knowing that your hard earned money is going to someone who is fairly being paid for their work.
On top of saving you money, either on fresher food, or in the long run by having well-made quality products, is that buying local will also cost you less in taxes! Shopping local means things like less infrastructure and less maintenance, as well as insurance that your taxes will be put back into the local economy, all of which is very beneficial to you and other consumers.
Better Customer Service, Locally
We have all probably had a nightmare experience when trying to deal with a huge corporation by calling the 1-800 number when something goes wrong with a product or service. A lot of times you end up getting transferred around only to end up with someone who has little to no experience or knowledge on how to handle the problem. This is because most of the time the customer service represented is so far removed from the situation that they are not personally involved in the situation. This changes drastically when working with a local business owner, they are much more likely to be invested in solving the problem and hearing what they did wrong so that they can fix the problem. This leads to a personal approach that often ends up with the issue being taken very seriously. That's how we do business here at your local Bedding Mart store!
When taking into account some of the major reasons why shopping local is so important, it is easy to see why so many people recommend doing it. The next time you feel like going to the supermarket, try checking out your local street market instead. You are sure to have a much better experience all the way around!