As you drive into my hometown, you'll quickly encounter a cute building along Main Street, one that appears to a whimsical spirit as the perfect location for that coffee shop they've always been dreaming of opening. But despite its dreamy qualities, the structure has one glaring downfall: it's cursed.
In the fifteen years I shared a zip code with the little building, innumerable different signs and names hung over its door. Today, its empty windows beckon the next person longing to create a cozy community space and share their unique culinary talents with their neighbors. Unfortunately, this creative visionary will risk a great deal by purchasing a space in which even the most talented of owners have managed to stay for no more than a few years.
Small businesses are true art pieces. They fulfill goals and dreams, employ people who cannot travel long distances, provide an occasionally-needed mental refuge from a massively interconnected world, build up neighborhoods and towns, and address the unique needs and relationships of an individual community, all in a creative and vibrant manner.
How tragic it is that most small businesses struggle to garner enough attention to remain open and make enough profit to thrive.
There's a great deal to say about why this is happening. Certainly many cannot afford to consistently shop locally when prices are not the lowest. However, this is a cyclical problem. Small businesses must set prices high enough to make a profit, and when they already receive way fewer customers than large corporations, this means that they must make money from fewer sales, often keeping prices a little higher. Given that information, I could never demand that everyone shop locally all the time.
However, if you're going out anyway and have the means to do so, why not choose a local family owned-restaurant over a massive chain? In this case, the money you'll be spending anyway funds a local entrepreneur's dream instead of a multimillion-dollar business that doesn't need the help.
From a humanistic perspective, you'll also diversity your experience by, for example, trying that homemade ice cream recipe that only the chef from down the street can really get right instead of grabbing the same trademarked dish as everyone else (though that one is delicious and certainly has its place as well).
Here is the bottom line. If you have the means to help out people who lack your social position or the stability of your position, why wouldn't you? Supporting small businesses simply by being a customer is an excellent step toward maintaining unique and forward-moving communities and empowering all people in this country. It creates a better, more vibrant society for all of us- including you.
