From Walnut Grove to The Big Box

The other day on my lunch break I sat in my comfortable, air conditioned office behind the computer and I ordered something that I needed from Amazon Prime.  It was cheaper than anything that I could find at a local brick and mortar store.  It was delivered to my doorstep in two days.  Yesterday after I quickly ate lunch, I drove to Wal Mart to purchase a spark plug for our lawn mower for $1.87.  I sat in the parking lot prior to going in the store, waiting for a good stopping point from the latest James Lee Burke book I’m listening to by audiobook.

While listening I looked at throngs of people hurriedly entering and exiting the store, I watched an aggressive and ugly grackle pull French fries from a bag of trash that someone left in the filthy parking lot rather than putting it in a trash can.  I opened my car door and the mean grackle looked menacingly at me and angled his tail, giving a loud, unpleasant noise as if to threaten me.  I walked across the baking asphalt into a huge store, dodging shoppers, found the spark plug and was checked out by an impersonal cashier.

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Those two shopping experiences couldn’t have been more different; however, when I think about them, they both have one thing in common – they are BAD for business – local “Mom & Pop” shops, that is.  Many Mom & Pop shops have closed and stand vacant in communities across our nation, with weeds growing up in their parking lots, a memorial to an earlier time.  The grackle in the parking lot, to me, was a harbinger of the unpleasantness of my shopping experience and the unintended consequences of my attempt to save money, effort, and time.

I should know better.  As a former manager of a Family-owned and operated grocery store that my grandfather established back in 1947, I know how difficult it is trying to compete with the multi-national super retailers who can sell their product at a retail price (and make a profit doing it) that is well below your cost.  It was hard.  We offered credit to our customers, knew their names, and carried out their groceries to their cars.

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In the quest for convenience and pinching pennies, we've hurt many small, family-owned businesses to the detriment of our communities.  Supporting local "Mom & Pop's" are beneficial to our communities and we should strive to patronize them when they provide excellent service.  In THIS LINK it lists out 10 benefits of foregoing Amazon and the Big Boxes in order to patronize local friends and neighbors.  The link above lists the following: 

Here’s what happens when you “shop local.”

1. More of your money will be kept in your local economy

For every $100 you spend at locally owned businesses, $68 will stay in the community. What happens when you spend that same $100 at a national chain? Only $43 stays in the community.*

2. You embrace what makes your community unique

You wouldn’t want your house to look like everyone else’s in the U.S. So why would you want your community to look that way?

3. You create local jobs

Local businesses are better at creating higher-paying jobs for your neighbors. When you shop locally, you help create jobs for teachers, firemen, police officers, and many other essential professions.

4. You help the environment

Buying from a locally owned business conserves energy and resources in the form of less fuel for transportation and less packaging.

5. You nurture community

Local business owners know you, and you know them. Studies have shown that local businesses donate to community causes at more than twice the rate of chains.

6. You conserve your tax dollars

Shopping in a local business district means less infrastructure, less maintenance, and more money available to beautify your community. Also, spending locally instead of online ensures that your sales taxes are reinvested where they belong— in your community!

7. You create more choice

Locally owned businesses pick the items and products they sell based on what they know you like and want. Local businesses carry a wid­er array of unique products because they buy for their own individual markets.

8. You took advantage of their expertise

You are their friends and neighbors, and locally owned businesses have a vested interest in knowing how to serve you. They’re passionate about what they do. Why not take advantage of it?

9. You invested in entrepreneurship

Creativity and entrepreneurship are what the American economy is founded upon. Nurturing local business en­sures a strong community.

10. You made your community a destination

The more interesting and unique your community, the more we will attract new neighbors, visitors and guests. This benefits everyone!

*Source: Civic Economics – Andersonville Study of Retail Economics.

Harriett and Nels Oleson were always there to serve the inhabitants of Walnut Grove.  Charles Ingalls didn’t have to contend with grackles in the parking lot, but it wasn’t perfect.  He still had to contend with this:

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