Why Shopping Small Matters and How to Support Local Businesses During the Holidays
Everybody wants a strong local economy. One of the best ways to ensure your communitys economy grows in strength and remains strong all year round is to shop local during the holidays.
However, shopping locally is easier said than done.
SOCA has assembled a list of the top reasons to shop local, as well as a few strategies for making local shopping easier this holiday season.
Why You Should Shop Local this Hol
iday Season
There are many reasons to shop local when buying holiday gifts for friends and loved ones.
Here are a few of the biggest reasons to shop local for the holidays (and all year round).
Keep Money in the Community
Local small businesses rely on your purchases to keep their doors open and lend their unique voice to your community.
How does it work? When you spend $100 locally $68 stays in the community. When you spend $100 at a box store, only $48 stays in the community. When you shop online, nearly all of the money goes out of your community.
All that money adds up.
You Will Find More Unique Items
Shop at chains and your gifts will look the same as those gifts purchased across the country. However, when you shop local, you will find unique, or even bespoke, gifts that your friends and family will cherish for a lifetime.
You Help Create Local Culture
When you support businesses that are centered in your community, you give local merchants the funds to create art, culture, and style in your town.
Local businesses are often key funders of local festivities, arts, education, and culture. Your money helps ensure that small businesses can give more towards these pursuits.
Keep Your Neighbors Employed
Many of your friends and neighbors own or work for local small businesses. When you spend money at their stores, owners make more money and employees have steady jobs with higher wages.
How You Can Support Small Businesses This Holiday Season
From Cincinnati to Dayton, and cities all over Southern Ohio, small businesses badly need your support this holiday season. Here are a few tips to help make shopping locally easy.
Make Small Businesses Your Priority
Many of us tend to push our Christmas shopping off until it is too late. When that happens, we often order our gifts online or run to the mall.
This year, make a list of small businesses you want to target for gift shopping and make sure you go to those stores a few weeks before the holidays. That way you will get your Christmas shopping done early and support local businesses.
Buy Gift Cards
Gift cards from local businesses spas, restaurants, salons, retailers, and more are all great ways to support local businesses without committing to a specific gift.
These gift cards are excellent choices for a quick gift for relatives, coworkers, friends, and more. And it can help someone you know to discover their next favorite local store.
Order Online From Local Stores
We all love the convenience of online shopping, but we hate it when our money goes out of state or overseas.
Many local businesses nowadays offer online shopping options. These options combine the convenience of online shopping with the benefits of shopping locally. That's a win-win!
Shop Small and Support Local Businesses
When you shop small and support local businesses, the power of your dollar is stretched exponentially.
Your cash helps small businesses expand, and small businesses help make your community a better place to live.
But helping small businesses isnt just up to the consumer. Small businesses can help support other local businesses too! Not only that, but small businesses can greatly improve the lives of their employees.
If you own a local business and are looking to support your employees, SOCA negotiates benefits for Chambers of Commerce so that they, in turn, can offer much-needed benefits to their Chamber members.
View our full list of members and join your local chamber of commerce to enjoy their benefits.
For the best chamber of commerce benefits and small business benefits in Ohio, reach out to SOCA today!