Simple advice for the holidays: Shop local
How so, one might ask, during this gloomy period of economic bailouts, recession, disappearing retirement funds and other monetary calamities?
The answer is simple: Shop local.
Take what funds you have, ample or otherwise, and spend them right here in Marble Falls and the other cities of the Highland Lakes.
Patronize local merchants, the moms-and-pops, the independently owned shops. These are neighbors and friends. Some of them are struggling to get by.
And while this advice may sound self-serving, or even too commercial for the opinion pages, it is in keeping with a sound philosophy that promotes a vibrant local economy and thriving commerce.
When shops here are doing well, then the community does well, too.
Readers will notice in today’s edition a local gift guide filled with stories about area merchants. You will likely recognize the names. You likely will recognize some faces.
These aren’t just merchants and shopkeepers and beauticians and salespeople — they live next door, their kids go to the same schools, they’re standing in the next pew on Sunday singing a hymn with you.
It’s an easy formula to keep the area economically viable: Shop local. Spend your pennies here. Let them circulate and re-circulate, adding value to the community and buttressing local jobs.
The research speaks for itself.
One of the greatest benefits to doing business locally is that you create a much stronger local economy and a community that will be able to come through economic challenges, said an official recently with the American Independent Business Alliance.
Shoppers who stay local may learn they can find nearly everything they need right here, saving gas and time.
The money that gets spent stays in town, helping the town. It doesn’t matter which town, as long as it’s in the Highland Lakes.
According to the alliance, a study conducted in 2004 in the city of Andersonville, Ill., north of Chicago showed the importance of the shop-local philosophy.
The Andersonville Study of Retail Economics, conducted by Civic Economics, indicated that for every $100 spent at a local firm, $68 remained in the Chicago economy.
When the same amount was spent at a chain firm, only $43 stayed in the Chicago economy. The study showed changes in consumer-spending habits have a substantial local economic impact.
Looking even deeper into the research, money spent locally circulates about three and half times longer in a local economy than a dollar spent in a chain store, the research indicated.
The reasoning is simple, and it doesn’t take a think-tank to reach the conclusion that shopping locally benefits everyone.
This is a vibrant community with some great, hardworking and unique businesses. Consumers might want to think twice before going to Austin or San Antonio and spending hard-earned dollars in those locales. Local shops are just as good, their services are closer and more intimate, and they have better returns.
These are neighbors and they have plenty to offer.