With the rise of global warming and a growing number of local small business’ and small business owners going into business now it is more important than ever to make the choice to support local. Here are five reasons that supporting local can help build your community and make you feel better about where your money is going.

Unique local business’ help define the character to a city local business’create a unique community that brings joy and identity to people who shop local. Every community is unique and influenced, shaped and defined by the businesses that operate within the area. Great local business’ make people in the community happier and increase the traffic to an area contributing to helping it grow and bringing character, identity and style that can help raise property values and create distinct neighbourhoods. 

Local business’ provide jobs for the people of the community the largest base of national employers in Canadian communities are small business owners. Small business’ love to hire locals, less people are out of work and less people have to commute. People often feel better shopping where they know they are supporting neighbours, friends and community residents. 

Excellent customer service smaller local business’ provide the best customer service because they want to keep their business’ thriving and are more negatively affected by negative reviews, bad reviews can literally drive people out of business. The small business owners rely on people in the community to spread the good word and keep people coming to their shops, they care about their business and customer satisfaction and they care about you. People who work in the local business’ tend to build really positive relationships with their customers especially the elderly, the poor, the lonely and the sick, they get to know you and you get to know them ( I always miss the people at my local business’ when I move )

You stimulate local economy and drive money into local non profits and charities when you purchase local more money is kept in the community because more local business’ support one another, along with local farmers and freelance service providers. Local business’ become involved with charities that are close to home and often have special events and promotions that support local charities and non profits and make the world a better place. When small business’ donate they help lower their yearly taxes and keep money in the community helping those in need. Local charities and business’ gain from collaborations and working together furthering the strength and character of the community and bringing positive attention and media that  builds stronger community identity.

Shopping local means you are making choices that positively impact the environment most local business’ are set up in an area with a higher walk score or at the center of town where they can gain from foot traffic and can be accessed to public transit. Local business’ also often source their products and food from other local business’ versus from other parts of the country or across the globe. All of these factors help reduce our carbon footprint and have a positive impact on our environment. 

Moving to a small town and also my involvement with small local business’ and business owners across several communities has inspired me to write this post and share with you some surprising reasons to shop local. Thank you for reading my first blog post I would love to know why you shop local or what you might add to my list comment below or let me know on Instagram @youareacanvas