I love to shop local how many of you
also love to shop local good yay okay so
let me tell you why I'm so passionate
about shopping local when I was a little
kid we moved around every three years my
dad worked for a corporate retail
company and so they transferred him from
state to state I didn't have a feeling
of community and I thought that feeling
anonymous was the norm for most people
so then we moved to a small town in
Michigan and everything changed for me I
met my best friend and her dad owned a
men's clothing store in the downtown
shopping district when I walked down
Main Street with her for the very first
time I noticed that everyone was
greeting her by name we walked into the
local drugstore and the pharmacist who
also owned the business treated her like
family I thought this was idyllic this
was something that I wanted my life to
be so we ended up moving to West
Lafayette and I eventually got to live
my dream I opened my own store at market
square I had the store for 18 years and
I felt like a very great part of the
community I helped people with their
fundraisers I did a lot of fashion shows
I gave to the teams of their children my
customers were important to me we got to
know each other really well we became
friends I knew them by name they I
watched the kids grow up they watched me
get married and have kids of my own so
unfortunately with the economy downturn
I had to close my store there wasn't as
much money coming into my store at that
time and during my going out of business
sale one of my customers went to visit
her mom at Westminster village and her
mother was sobbing she was very very
upset and her daughter said mom what's
wrong and she said my favorite store is
closing so it did have an impact on my
customers as well closing is not fun
having your dream die is not something
that is fun either
so that's part of why I like to talk
about why it's important to shop local
business but I also want you to know
that it there's something in it for you
as well so first of all why buy local
like Zach said the more money that you
spend at a local store more of your
dollars go back into the local community
than if you shop at a chain store if you
shop online very little of that of your
money goes back into your local
community online businesses many of them
do not pay sales tax local campaigns
make a difference so the more we talk
about shopping local the more of a
positive effect it has on our local
economy it'll help our businesses make
more money and then more money goes back
into our local economy so really though
what's in it for you what do you get out
of this if you shop a local store like
John said you get better quality
merchandise you get better customer
service you get more unique things so
you get things that are a lot more fun
the jacket that i have on was purchased
in my store 10 years ago still looks
pretty good i think you are supporting
your friends and your neighbors and
people that you go to church with you
are shopping in stores where you will
know the name of the owner and they will
greet you by name as well Cheryl woody
many of you might know anybody know
Cheryl to tulips yay who doesn't know
GRE O'Brien right fixture in the
community and then Terry from Rubio
flowers all really wonderful people and
they have a great give us back a lot by
by having their businesses in our
community so without a unique small
businesses it wouldn't be as much fun to
live here it wouldn't make other people
want to come and live in this community
having unique small businesses is part
of what keeps our housing prices up a
little higher because people want to
live where they can see and do unique
and fun things this also is something
that makes it more fun for our kids to
come home and visit so how would it be
for your kids if
they came home and they couldn't go to
our knees and they couldn't go to brunos
and there wouldn't be a XXX or Harry's
that maybe they wouldn't come home quite
as often so buying from a small business
helps our communities it helps us find
fun places to work as well small
business owners are very good employers
they give us part time jobs that are fun
to work maybe when our kids go back to
school or our kids leave home or maybe
when we retire we want to do something
instead of just staying at home it helps
they help our kids get jobs and get
their first job experience which will
help them in the future get more jobs
small businesses small business owners
care about their employees and they're
probably not going to make you work on
Thanksgiving so what would our life be
like if our town had the same chain
stores that every other town had and
that's all we had to choose from if we
don't put more of our money at least try
to make a conscious effort to spend a
little bit more of your money in a local
business we can keep them around are not
going to go out of business I'm not
asking you to spend your money all the
time in small businesses but just try to
make a conscious effort whenever you
decide that you need to purchase
something maybe there's a store locally
owned store in town where you can find
that merchandise these are the stores
that came before maybe a lot of you
recognize these names lobes was a
department store downtown the flour mill
was a wonderful shop I'm sure if you
ever shopped there you miss it this time
of year because they had fantastic
Christmas decorations to purchase so all
of these stores have gone out of
business in our community if they were
still around we wouldn't hear people say
there's no place to shop in this town I
think that it's really important for all
of us to think about shopping local it's
good for us it's more fun it's good for
the businesses that that we have that
are locally owned it's good for our
community it makes it a much better
place for us to live and I think also
when you visit other communities it's
important for you to support their local
businesses as well
so spread the love of shopping local
whenever and wherever you can thank