Shopping local not only supports your community, but it also helps keep your community thriving and ensures you’re getting the highest-quality products at the best costs available. Shopping locally also keeps your dollars in the local economy where they can be reinvested in the community rather than being shipped off to corporate headquarters or even taken out of the United States as profits to be reinvested elsewhere.
Shopping locally here in Oklahoma helps keep our dollars in our local economy, improving our infrastructure and our schools. You can shop online at a local company like Sundance Office, walk into a local shop on Black Wall Street, go out to eat in The Paseo District, or visit any other local community or company. When you do the same in your local communities, you are contributing to the success of that community.
Here are a few of the direct ways that shopping locally helps communities prosper and improves your engagement and profitability.
Build Stronger Communities
When you buy from local businesses, you are strengthening your community and investing in your town’s growth. In fact, more than 50% of profits are recirculated back into the community when you shop locally. Not only that but you know that the sales team, delivery drivers, managers, etc., live nearby and have a vested interest in your town because they work there, too. Your delivery driver could even be your child’s Little League coach! We love knowing our team is friends and neighbors with everyone we meet, making it easy to build relationships with our customers and that builds a better, stronger community overall.
Create More Jobs
Local businesses create more jobs in the local economy than large chains, keep the community engaged, and allow for more entry level jobs for new employees. You help create jobs and keep both money and families in the local economy. The ripple effect that one small business has on a community is astounding. When you buy from a local store, you are not only supporting that business, but also the other local businesses in the area that benefit from its success. You create a sense of community and increase your involvement in it. You help to keep families together in the neighborhood, provide quality options for good and services, and strengthen relationships with those who are near and dear to you. Quality job opportunities create a booming economy which brings about great school systems and overall improved local infrastructure.
Improve Community Success
Shopping local allows you to give back to the community that helped make you successful in the first place. Plus, as stated above, shopping locally can be an enjoyable and engaging experience, allowing you to connect with your fellow neighbors. When we shop at a store in our own neighborhood, we are also supporting the stores in other neighborhoods too- since most of our dollars stay within the city limits, improving overall community success. For all these reasons and more, shopping locally can make your life better and help bring prosperity back to the communities where you live.
Reduce Carbon Footprint
When you buy locally, you help reduce your overall carbon footprint simply because your delivery drivers don’t have to drive far distances, wasting precious and expensive gas. And because those businesses are buying their products from other local purveyors who also reduce their carbon footprint, it’s a trickle-down effect. If we want to sustain our communities and our environment as a whole, we need to invest in them now. The tradeoffs of shopping locally and the impact it has on the environment and the community can’t be overstated.
Find High-Quality, Low-Cost Products
When you work with a local purveyor or producer, you are building a relationship. And relationships can lead to deals. You want to work with your local workplace solutions dealer, and they want to work with you. They are able to provide you with lower costs on the same high-quality products that you deserve. With increased profits for both you and them, it’s easy to see why businesses prefer to buy locally. The next time you’re thinking about buying something, think about what kind of deal is waiting for you just down the street.
Find Your Community in Oklahoma
Here are some other areas to visit in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, especially going into the Holiday season:
Tulsa Metro
OKC Metro
Want to learn more about how to bring the WOW back to your community? Get in touch with us today!
