posted June 28, 2009
There is a great little family-owned restaurant next to my Mountain Music Store. It's the Southern Restaurant, has seen four generations own/manage it.
It employs about 15 or 20 people. They really do "treat you like family - only better!
I've eaten there for over 20 years, and I know all the folks who work there. I have seen people grow up there, and made a lot of friends there. It's a social hub in the community.
These little restaurants are closing all over the country, as are many other small businesses since we all take them for granted.
music stores, where six local stores have closed since I opened my store
six years ago. Usually, local vendors can be competitive, if given the opportunity.
In every case, it's on-line or "big box" stores that put them under.
Try to shop local and keep your money in your community. The latest financial debacle, where the stock market crash wiped out all the money we have spent elsewhere, might have been a lot easier if we had invested it locally, rather than with the large corporations.
for every $100 spent in a local store, $68 stays in your community. For every $100 spent in a chain store,
$43 remains in the community. For every $100 spent online, nothing stays in your local community. Basically, money spent elsewhere is undermining the future of your own community.
Prior to the development of the "department store," people had the unique experience of interacting with very specialized trades-people and crafts-people. There were small specialty shops, very local and very personal, for everything: bakers. butchers, fabrics, tack, feed/seed, hardware, groceries, hats, shoes, etc. We have lost something, in the nature of the framework of our communities, by failing to try to buy local.
Keep your money in your community.
Steve Daugherty
stevedaugherty48@bellsouth
* * *
Very well stated, Steve.
What consumers and governments fail to recognize is that dollars spent with locally owned and operated business is that their money remains to benefit the community. The primary difference in using a locally owned and operated business versus an out of town owned entity is that the revenue remains in the community to cycle again, and directly has positive impacts on local employment and tax revenue. For these reasons, the ‘best” goods, services, or bid is local, period.
April Eidson
* * *
This silly argument has been demolished so many times, but once again those who want to feel good, say “Buy Locally Or No Local Store Will Remain.” But the ostrich still sticks his head in the sand.
Let’s “Tell the World About Chattanooga” about our policy. Volkswagen-stay in Germany; tourists to Rock City, the Aquarium and Ruby Falls,--don’t come here, rather spend your money in your own town. Think your mortgage money stays in Chattanooga? Ask an honest banker (hard to find these days). Tell the real estate agents to only sell to locals, not those foreigners from another state who should buy locally themselves. Tell the vendors (auto parts stores, grocery stores, office supply stores, clothes manufacturers, insurance agents, etc.), that you will only buy products if the money stays in Chattanooga.
People of Whitwell, Dayton, East Ridge, don’t shop in Chattanooga. Buy only in your town. If the TV, IPod, automobile, tires, shoes, clothes, items from Ebay, don’t say Made In (insert your place of domicile here) don’t buy it, do without. I suspect we’ll see more dresses made out of flour sacks, and maybe we can start a wooden shoe factory from our local lumberyards. Oops, sorry we do not have wooden shoe makers in Chattanooga, so go barefoot, but be proud of your bare feet.
Those with small children in disposable diapers not made locally, just tie old towels around their bottoms. Feel the pride yet?
For those of you who still can’t understand the fallacy of your argument go here: http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2008/Selicklocal.html
By the way Mr. Daugherty, do you make and produce your CDs and vinyl in your local shop with local products? I didn’t think so.
Instead of giving away money to acts to Riverbend, let’s have seven nights of the “Big Orange Yodeler” and “The Beaters.” I bet that money stays local. One small stage should be enough for the crowd.
But keep on believing that “Buying Local or no Local Stores will remain”. Welcome to the 19th Century.
P.S.
In my first response I said, “Instead of giving away money to acts for Riverbend, let’s have seven nights of the “Big Orange Yodeler” and “The Beaters.” I bet that money stays local. One small stage should be enough for the crowd.”
A sister of one of “The Beaters” took my words as disparaging remarks about “The Beaters”. I apologize to anyone who was offended by that remark in my earlier response. It was not my intention to do so.
“The Beaters” have been a great band (much better than many bands Riverbend has procured). In fact, “The Beaters” long tradition of performing and enriching Chattanooga and other locales while holding down regular jobs, having families, and the same worldly troubles as the rest of us is a testament, not only to their music, but their tenacity to entertain for the sheer pleasure of bringing good music to the local scene for more than twenty years. Give me “The Beaters” anytime over Willie Nelson and some of the has-been acts Chattanooga gets all too frequently.
Again, I apologize to anyone offended by my first response as it was not my intent to do so. My thanks to Melanie for bringing my poor wording and sentence structure to my face. I’ll do better next time.
But I stand by everything else I said.
Stephen Greenfield
stephengreenfield@ charter.net
* * *
I have owned several small businesses over the years here in town, and I can tell you that local support for me was a joke. Most of my client base originated for many years from Atlanta and Nashville, even though we were active members of the local chamber of commerce. It seemed that most of the local businesses either ordered from larger firms from out-of-town or based on the "good ol' boy" networks based on which prep school you went to. I never got one single customer from a local chamber convention or meeting.
In the business I am involved with now, it is a locally based printer, but we have only a small percentage of local customers. We have many thousands of customers across the country. In fact, we have significantly more customers in Anchorage, Alaska than we do in the Chattanooga area.
I can't tell you how many times I see people in town with NEBS forms or Deluxe checks. I often mention to business people that we offer the exact forms and checks here locally and even 20-30% cheaper than what they are paying now. I give them a card but never hear from any of them.
I had a scenario here in the Ooltewah area where a well known advocate of buying local was buying his forms from NEBS, and I brought him a catalog that showed the same products at better prices. But he never calls, and I assume still buys from Massachusetts. I still see commercials from time to time of him imploring people to keep their dollars local. So, I understand your frustration but I am not sure what can be done.
J.R. Harris
Ooltewah
jharrisasp@yahoo.com
* * *
Mr. Greenfield,
In your response, you made some valid points. However you missed the conclusion of Mr. Daugherty’s original post, and you take his argument to the absurd extreme. You seem to be under the impression that “buying local” is an all-or-nothing situation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Buying local is all about making small choices where you can to support your community, but it does not have to overtake every single aspect of your life.
It is foolish to think that one can subsist solely items bought locally ; that would be difficult, if not impossible. There are some small steps you can take, such as buying your produce from a farmers market instead of a chain store, joining a CSA (community-supported agriculture project), purchasing bread from independently-owned bakers, or buying meat from local butchers. With respect to groceries, these foods are of superior quality and consequently, better for your overall health than those gotten from any chain grocery store.
That said, no one has suggested that we should all cease buying consumer goods from chain stores. Indeed, some chain establishments are locally-owned and operated franchises. In addition, local business, whether franchised or wholly proprietor-owned, can create more jobs for local people like you and me—which is an investment in our region’s prosperity.
Though Volkswagen was a remarkable catch, and will surely be a boon to our region, the importance of the small firm cannot be discounted. According to data from the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce there are about 160,000 jobs in Hamilton County, of which 2/3 are in firms employing less than 100 persons and over 90% are in firms employing less than 50 people. In fact, virtually every successful business enterprise on earth began as a small firm. Some these grew into multinational conglomerates, some stayed small and were still successful and helpful to their communities. It is absolutely silly to maintain that putting your money back into your community is ineffective.
Anna Scholze
| Dining Out | Business | Movies | Focus | About Us |
| Church | Living Well | Memories | Outdoors | Real Estate | Student Scene | Travel |
