It is close to Christmas, the time for everyone to shop shop shop. People are buying gifts for their friends, families, coworkers, teachers etc. This can be costly. Living in a small town myself, I can attest to the fact that there isn’t always the greatest and best priced selections. It can be hard to purchase a SUPER SPECIAL COOL and different toy from Wal-Mart, which is really our main toy store here. If you are anything like me, a gifted gift giver, you like to impress with your favors and gets something truly unique. So why not just take the day trip and spend a day shopping in Sudbury or Northbay or just order something online? There are many reason why not.This blog will discuss the concept of out shopping, how this is affecting our communities and how we can help.
Out shopping occurs when local consumers choose to shop in surrounding areas or online because of better prices, better goods or, in the case of the internet, easier access (Halseth, Ryser, & Durkee, 2005). This obviously has a direct impact on resident businesses as they are losing money that could have been spent locally. Imagine if everyone was constantly travelling down to Sudbury to purchase bulk items like dog food or pantry staples. What would that look like for our local grocery stores and pet store? How would they survive? This is more than just an economic stance but also ensuring a better overall quality of life for the small communities (Halseth, Ryser, & Durkee, 2005). Driving through small towns one can often see many local businesses with closed signs on their door. If we are looking at this from a conservative viewpoint, don’t we want to ensure economic growth in our own communities? It makes sense that shopping locally helps to create a more sustainable environment for our community. Travelling to a different place or shopping online results in leakages in local sales (Samli, Riecken & Yavas, 1983). Sales lost to other locations can have a dramatic impact on small communities (Samli, Riecken & Yavas, 1983). Governments give small business loans and tax credits to help them get head and allow them to grow thus providing the opportunity for economic growth; it is up to the people to take advantage of them (Conservative, 2012). The rusty
bucket model is a graphic representation of what out shopping can do to a community. One can see the export money coming in, and going out through the “community holes” thus lowering our economic activity level.What can we do? Take advantage of the business grants and tax reductions provided by the government. This will allow for job creation in our communities. As a possible business owner, find out what the community needs are and gear your business towards what the people need and what will make the community strong (Samli, Riecken & Yavas, 1983). Discover what it is that people are buying else wear and why? Addressing some of the reasons potential customer choose to shop non-local can help to alleviate some of the out shopping. (Samli, Riecken & Yavas, 1983). Where there are jobs and businesses, there is money to be spent. Shop locally, it is important to be self-sustainability as a community.
Community economic growth is paramount to our future. Small local businesses play such a vital role in the growth of a community, as individuals it is important that we help them succeed. Each individual is responsible for a part in our community.
References
Halseth, G., Ryser , L., & Durkee, S. (2005). Shopping and commuting patterns in prince rupert, b.c. University of Northern British Columbia Retrieved from http://web.unbc.ca/geography/faculty/greg/publications/NorthwestShopping/FinalShoppingReportPrinceRupert.pdf
Samli, A., Riecken, G., & Yavas, U. (1983). Intermarket shopping behavior and the small community: Problems and prospects of a widespead phenomenon. Journal of the Academy of Marke ring Science Winter, 11(2), 1-14. Retrieved from http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/616/art%3A10.1007%2FBF02721857.pdf?auth66=1355108623_d8621466fd99aaeb9719d9e0d14cf905&ext=.pdf
http://www.conservative.ca
I think this blog is a very important concept to raise especially living in small communities. This blog has opened my eyes, because I too am guilty of shopping outside my community due to better deals etc. I think for the people who live in smaller cities it is important to really bare in mind the benefits of shopping locally. I think people just do not understand how spending money locally can benefit the economy of our small northern communities.
ReplyDeleteAlissa B-mental illness group
I really liked your blog. I have family members that live in smaller communities and they too have travel far distances to go shopping. The problem with shopping in the smaller communities is extreme high prices the further up North you are geographically will determine what you can afford to spend. If there wasn't such a high cost of shipping the products consumers want, it would make big difference in their local economy.
ReplyDeleteThanks Allison