Every dollar you spend at a corporate monolith is a dollar extracted from your community. It’s a vote for a world where Main Street looks like a ghost town and your social media feed is just ads instead of fun.
But every dollar you spend at a small business? That’s a dollar going toward someone’s rent. For the barista’s poetry habit or the cartoonist’s art supply. It’s a dollar that says, "I’d rather live in a world where people thrive than where billionaires buy themselves another yacht."
Best advice on buying local is to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. If you just shift some percentage of your purchasing to local, that's a positive change.
Use local bookstores. Perhaps kitchen products? Hardware stores. Sports equipment and clothing. Tackle the easy ones first.
If it costs 10% more than at the big box store consider it a donation to your community.
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