Every year, particularly just before Christmas, the call goes out – shop local, buy local, support small businesses! It’s a fantastic sentiment, and without a doubt an activity to be encouraged. But here’s a thought. Supporting small businesses means a little more than just buying from a local business – something we, entitled consumers that we are, sometimes forget.
It’s easy to believe that simply waving your credit card in the vicinity of a small locally owned store is an act that should be rewarded – after all, they should be grateful that we chose them instead of heading to town to rack up debt elsewhere! However when we waltz into a regional store expecting the same range, cheaper-than-cost prices and doting service that a multimillion dollar franchise offers, we are not really offering support, and the warm fuzzies anticipated may be a little cool.
You see a small business cannot compete with its giant cousins on range – by definition they are small. They cannot always compete on price either – they simply don’t have the buying power. In regional towns they may also be absorbing extra delivery costs – and the price of fuel isn’t kind! So whilst the friendly familiar face at the counter may offer you wonderful service most of the time, at times they may also be overstretched, understaffed and downright exhausted. In this case your support is understanding, patience and perhaps the willingness to pay a fair price – after all they are providing you a convenient local service and hopefully saving you a trip to the city!
Unfortunately we’ve been very well trained by fast food outlets and massive multinational chains to demand cheap and instant. Somewhere along the line we were also led to believe that as a customer our time is infinitely more precious and less abundant than that of the person behind the counter. We’re happy to endlessly peruse goods on offer shrugging off kindly offered assistance (so what if it is five minutes before closing? I’m sure they’d love to stay open while I browse the discount basket!), but there’s hell to pay if we are made to wait a few moments for a slow point of sale, or even, heaven forbid, a queue!
So while I’m shopping locally this Christmas, I’m also going to try to support local – I’m going to enjoy the uniqueness of locally made gifts, and invest my money in the future of the region, not a faceless chain store already flush with cash. I’m going to be glad an extra dollar or two saves me trip to Perth (estimated fuel cost $15-$35 – not accounting for the cost of time) as well as being grateful I have the option to have a local shop at all – after all if we don’t use it, we will lose it! Most of all, I’m going to be kind to the fabulous local entrepreneur or business owner for offering their service – because if we are to thrive in regional WA, we’re going to need them.
