Small businesses are the core of our communities. While this has always been the case, a growing campaign to rally and better support small businesses continues to make progress.
Black Friday always taken the nation by storm since 1952, but it wasn’t until 2010 that Small Business Saturday began, slowly becoming a successful, nationwide event. As mega stores and online shopping grow larger, the fight to remember the local business owner grows with it.
That’s why we loved Forbes’ recent article, “Six Reasons Small Business Keeps Winning”. Forbes lists Proximity, Local Flavor, The Personal Touch, Loyalty, Community, and Longevity as their reasons to love local businesses. We agreed with all of these reasons. After talking about some local businesses in the Jackson Metro Area and why we love them, we felt we could grow the list even more. Here’s what we had to add:
- EXCLUSIVITY: If you’re anything like us, as southern ladies, we would be mortified to show up to an event wearing the same thing as someone else or send the same Christmas card as our neighbor. When we shop at a local small business, that business owner is more than likely one of the only people in the area carrying the product. On top of that, they can probably tell you the names of the other customers who have bought the same thing.
I was shopping at a local boutique recently and found a blouse that I was ready to purchase. The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced I had seen one of my coworkers wearing it. I shared my fear with the lady helping me. Of course, she remembered my coworker shopping there the week before. Not only that, she remembered exactly what said coworker purchased, and it wasn’t that same blouse. I was good to go with zero shoppers remorse. Yay!
- QUALITY OF PRODUCTS: When you shop at local small businesses, you get to have the product right in front of you while you make your decision. Haven’t we all had an online experience where we’ve been deceived by good photography on a mega store’s website? Your package finally arrives and now you’re the proud owner of a product you don’t even recognize.
Our local small business owners spend countless days of their personal time shopping at market for the perfect product for their customers. They refuse to put their name on anything less than outstanding quality. PLUS, if you do get home and do have an issue, you get to interact with an actual person who takes care of the problem. You probably even have the owner’s cell phone number saved in your phone. Nothing can ruin a shopping experience like being stuck on hold with a 1-800 number.
- LOCAL ECONOMY: As Southerners, we’re taught to be proud of where we come from. What better way to show our pride than boosting our local economy? When our local businesses grow, we grow.
We all help our communities by purchasing houses and paying taxes and lots of things that are generally not-so-fun. When we purchase from local business, it’s a “two birds with one stone” scenario. We help our community AND purchase something we love or need.
- LOCAL PRODUCTS: There are products mega stores and online retailers simply don’t carry and we have them right here in our own back yard. Think local honey, pottery, paintings, candles, swag with your favorite college logo on it…the list goes on. Mississippi has so much to offer in the category of specialized products. Why would we want to settle for a knockoff from an online mega store?
What do you think? What are your favorite things about our local small businesses?