Big corporate stores often become financial drains on communities. Tax breaks are given to these businesses by local governments, under the assumption that they will ultimately bring greater tax revenue and employment to the local community, creating a stronger local economy. However this claim does not hold water, as often times the claim that greater economic resources for the community are exaggerated and the tax payers are left to foot the bill for the building of the corporate store. This further damages the community because local businesses, run by members of the community and not a distantly-located CEO, are run out due to the so-called “lower prices” of the big box store.
Large corporate businesses like Wal-Mart, Target and K-Mart are wide-spread across the world. They create a space within a community that is identical to the next one, lending a sense of familiarity and security for its visitors. Yet this duplication reduces cultural variation between cities and towns; and the sense of individuality and community is lost as readily as the claimed economic benefits that are sent to corporate headquarters. Local merchants find great difficulty in gaining access to big box retailers, and so depend on local shops to provide a space to sell their products. These small businesses thus create stronger bonds with the locality and have a greater investment in economic growth of their community. Sheer size and market control allow big box stores to for-go long-term investment in the local community.
The destruction of local businesses by these corporate stores ultimately reduces the diversity of choice available to consumers. Wal-Mart is an example of the methodological manner in which these stores take out competition. By having dramatically lower prices they are able to out-compete local shops. Once those local businesses are gone, Wal-Mart raises the prices on their items, ultimately monopolizing the local economy. Big-budget advertisements prevent audiences from realizing that there are in fact other options, still hanging on, within their community that they can patronize in place of the big box store.
By buying local, you as a consumer, customer and member of your community, state that you support the efforts and positive economic impacts these small businesses provide. Locally owned stores tend toward investing in other local businesses, like architects, plumbers, accountants, attorneys and other aspects required for running a successful business. Locally owned stores allow for the flourishing of the unique culture of the place, by giving local producers a venue to sell and advertise their products and skills. Because there are no corporate-board members to satisfy, local businesses have more motivation to invest in the community, rather than pumping money into the wallets of the already fabulously wealthy.
Certainly not all big-box stores have the goal of negatively impacting local communities, and not all local businesses aid in the growth of their locale. But the choices you make about where you spend your money is a potent statement to business and an expression of personal ideals. By taking money to a corporate business, it continues the spread of sameness in towns and cities across the nation and world; it helps those big box stores continue depleting the local economic environment; it helps pervade employee abuse. When you take money to a local business you invest in your community, both economically and culturally.
Take a stand against corporate shills. When you spend your money at local stores, you rebuild and strengthen your communities!
RESOURCES:
Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) by David Cay Johnston
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/independent_business/local_business_benefits.html
