Every time you choose to call an owner-operated business rather than a multi-location corporate chain store, you are siding with hard working local people who have put their names and their entire careers into creating a business that serves customers well, that keeps prices low, and that keeps money in your community. The owners of local businesses are more likely to be engaged in your community as parents, coaches, charitable contributors… and they certainly are paying a large share of the community’s taxes.
When a local family-owned business earns your business, everyone wins. That business owner is a neighbor, who employs neighbors, who pays rent to neighbors, who buys insurance from neighbors… all the money stays in the community rather than drifting off to Wall Street, and then to shareholders all over the country.
Small business owners have an increasingly difficult job, with increasingly complex regulations, more and more government requirements, higher taxes, and large competitors that get more and more aggressive every year. Whenever you can patronize a local family owned business, instead of a chain store, please do so. It’s a good decision that helps sustain strong communities and strong local economies.