Buying Locally


Girls, let’s suppose you are 16 years-old and want to get a job at a store downtown on the square. 
You tour the square and see a ‘Help Wanted’ sign in a clothing store. You go in and ask for an application. 

As the owner hands you the application, she says, “I haven’t see you in here before. Where do you usually shop?” 

You blush and say, “I get a lot of my stuff from the internet.” 

The owner says politely but firmly, “You would be wasting your time to fill out the application; we hire our active customers.” 

You go home unhappy, sit down and look out the window, and watch the delivery truck pull up and bring your mom a pair of shoes from an internet warehouse 1,000 miles away. 
Now you and that store owner both get sad when a delivery truck takes sales away from local businesses. 
Annnd...you realize that fewer local sales, means fewer local jobs. That’s how the economy works. That's absolute math.

So should we quit buying from the internet? 

That’s difficult. For example, banjo repair tools and electronic components can be hard to find in small towns. 
Even before the internet existed, people bought things from catalogs with warehouses far way.
Sears & Roebuck was a powerhouse in this endeavor.

Even so, we should buy local as much as possible, 
remembering  that your family's economic well-being is tied to your local economy. 

Even if we have to pay a bit more to buy locally, the advantages are: 

A better local economy, with more jobs,
Fewer unemployed relatives and neighbors, which means fewer poor classmates.
Being able to touch, see and determine the quality of what you are buying, 
Immediate possession of the purchase, 
Better resolution of any warrantee problems. 
Local businesses help support a lot of local causes. 

Local is Better! 

PS. This applies to boys too. 

Eric J. Rose
middlegrademysteries.com
photo: law.com

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