April 14th, 2005 - more on buying locally
Roger commented I have found that there are just as many mom&pop stores that have terrible policies and couldn’t care less about their workers. Wal-Mart is just a big powerful one.
It’s not just their policies that concern me (although that’s certainly part of it, particularly with Wal*Mart). It’s also where their money is spent. For example, the Red Radish is owned by two women who live in Neenah (or it’s vicinity). They probably spend their income in Neenah and the area, just like me. They bought an existing building, but if they hadn’t, they surely would have hired a local company to build it.
WM, on the other hand, is owned by people who don’t live anywhere near here. The owners’ incomes are not spent in Oshkosh at all. They bring in their own contractors and builders, using no local persons to construct their mega-buildings. (And I saw that with a plural intentionally–they are on their second building in Oshkosh. The first is sitting there empty.)
With a bank–local money can be used to lend more money to locals. Without deposits, there’s no money to lend to my friends and neighbors. There’s also less money available for interest, which is why my interest rate is so low (it’s only .75% I noticed, while my ING is now 3%.)
Local business people are more likely to support local events and activities (attending the school play, athletics, or the performer at the opera house; giving money to Girl Scouts, school fund raisers, small charities), and to donate money to major city projects (the owner of Miles Kimball helped build the library–I don’t think WalMart would ever contribute to that!).
It’s the local stores downtown and the Red Radish food store that carry local products–artists, farmers, etc. None of that is found at Target and little at the chain grocery store (even the local chains).
One problem with local companies (at least the grocery stores) is they appear to require the wearing of Packers jerseys on game days. Drives us nuts. Wonder what happens if someone hates the PAckers and refuses to wear one. (Admittedly, very few such people live ’round here but I suspect we have 3 in our house. Well, I’m indifferent, but I wouldn’t wear the jersey anyway. Let’s just say our green CR-V has EAGL FAN as the license plate…)
April 15th, 2005 at 4:40 pm EDT
I would agree that there is a benefit to offering business to locally owned stores. However, I find it to be too similar to arguments made by those subscribing to Pat Buccanan’s isolationist arguments. I have no more problem giving my money to owners and workers living in other towns or states than I do to those in other countries. It benefits everyone in the long run. Big businesses do a great deal of charitable donating locally. In 2004, the Wal-Mart gave $61 million in grants for organizations in 3,500 communities, helping to support organizations large and small, from local schools, YMCA and other youth programs, fire departments, and yes, even libraries. You can legitimately say that this is a tiny amount compared to what they could afford, but the only reason they can afford it is because they are so large and successful. A small local store just doesn’t have the leverage to buy things cheap that enables big chains to sell to the public cheap, which enables consumers to spend the money they save in places that offer things wal-mart NEVER will. I have yet to find “Pirate’s Booty” at a Wally-world and I love the stuff.