Buying Local Makes Cents

Whether you live in a city neighborhood or a small-town community, buying local helps create robust economies and ensure economic stability. Now is a great time to change your consumer habits and help your local businesses thrive.

We could all use more produce in our diets. Buying fruit and vegetables from local stands and area farms help keep family farms in business while building local economies. Buy from farms and experience the perfect tastes of fresh produce.

In Oregon's Willamette Valley where I live, two choices exist for other local farm products such as dairy products like milk and cheese. Local grocery stores that sell milk from local dairies is your best option. Walmart milk, trucked from Arkansas, is the worst option. The reason for this is simple: Local markets grow from local money.

Electronics, everybody's wishlist items, can be purchased locally as well. Sure, Amazon can ship it overnight for a great price, but why not support the local shop? Buying from a local television dealer, keeps local dollars in the immediate community, and helps keep our neighbors in business.

Service goods such as auto insurance, are better when purchased local. Being able to have close, personal relationships with business partners helps create a tight-knit, caring atmosphere, which serves all parties much better than say, buying car insurance online. You may get a cheaper price, but you get what you pay for.

No matter what you find yourself shopping for, it can probably be found locally. It might be a print for the photo above, or it may be the latest video game or digital movie disc. Find it not at Costco, nor online. Instead, look up your local options by using Google or your own Chamber of Commerce.

Shopping at small businesses that make up the neighborhoods we live in, provides stable and vital economic stimuli for our communities to grow and invest. Building robust communities starts with our consumer habits. Think about your hometown the next time you head to the grocery store, and think about how to make it better place to live.