- Buy Local and Support yourself: Several studies have shown that when we buy from an independent, locally owned business, rather than a nationally owned chain store, significantly more of our money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms; continuing to strengthen the economic base of our community.
- Support community groups: Kingston Non-profit organizations receive a lot more support from small business owners than they do from large chain stores.
- Keep our community unique: Where we shop, where we eat and have fun -- all of it builds our community. Our one-of-a-kind businesses are an integral part of the distinctive character of Kingston. Our tourism businesses will also benefit since, when people go on vacation they generally seek out destinations like Kingston that offer them a sense of being someplace, not just anyplace.
- Reduce environmental impact: Locally owned businesses can make more local purchases requiring less transportation. Small businesses set up shop in downtown Kingston as opposed to developing on the fringe. This generally means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution.
- Create more good jobs: Small local businesses are the largest employer in our community, providing the most jobs for residents.
- Get better service: Local businesses often hire people with a better understanding of the products they are selling and they also take more time to get to know customers.
- Invest in community: Local businesses are owned by people who live in our community, are less likely to leave, and therefore more interested in our community’s future.
- Put your taxes to good use: Local businesses require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to the chain stores entering our community.
- Buy what you want, not what someone wants you to buy: A marketplace of thousands of small businesses in Kingston is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term. A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based not on a national sales plan, but on the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices for you the consumer.
- Encourage local prosperity: A growing body of economic research shows that entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their "one-of-a-kind" businesses.
Comsumer Thinking: Shopping habits have developed around what we perceive is the best value for our time and money.
Huge multi-national corporate chains bombard us daily about products and price, but fail to mention
the value of a knowledgable sales person, after sales support, and many other things that an Independent Business can provide
us with both personally and in community.
Local officials are often seduced by promises of community benefits, jobs and tax revenue without
considering the "effects" on many local businesses and/or the domino effects their decisions can cause within the community.
People have only "X" amount of dollars to spend. When new chains come into Kingston the income flowing into these new chains
comes indirectly from established businesses in the community. And with incomes growing very slowly, big box stores cause existing businesses
to lose significant sales.
This "Big Box" mentality is costing us more of our hard-earned money than we realize. For instance: how often have you gone to that chain store
to get that advertised "deal" and ended up either up-grading and buying something more expensive . . . and then you looked around and bought things you never intended to buy?
The chains know that if they can get us into the store on an advertised special, their psychlogically
placed items will induce compliance to buy what we didn't go there to buy. If the item isn't in stock, we browse the store
looking for something to buy - anything! We don't know why we do this, we just do it.
And how many times did you get the item home to find it missing a part, already broken, or didn't do what you wanted and you had to cart-it-back!
Just take a look at the Custer Service Area - carts and carts of "junk" returned! They are wasting your time, money and gas. (Now they are trying to keep the customer area
clear so you won't notice.)
As these chains displace sales at locally owned businesses with their slick-psychology based advertising methods,
other parts of Kingston's economy suffer.
Numerous studies show that for every dollar a big-box chain store puts into the local economy, local businesses are putting 3 dollars back into the Community.
Each time we spend our hard-earned money we should consciously ask ourself, "Is the money going back into our community - or flowing out of our community."
Common sense tells us that when you get more money flowing out, than coming in, we are headed for trouble.
Think about the Independent Local Businesses who employ an array of supporting services:
- architects
- designers
- cabinet shops
- sign makers
- construction contractors
- accountants
- insurance brokers
- computer consultants
- attorneys
- ad agencies
- local retailers & distributors
- etc. etc. etc.
In contrast, a chain store is just a clone of other units, operating from headoffice (usually in the USA) using a minimum of local goods and services.
Though a single local shop carries a smaller selection than a big chain, a multiplicity of independent
retailers actually carry a greater diversity of choices than the chain stores. Unique, locally made items
you'll never see in the chain store. Quality products that come out of the package intact and working.
Quality products that last more than a month or two. And when you go to a locally owned shop to make a purchase, someone knows something about what you want to buy.
Personal Service, Knowledge, and Quality products & services - that's what a Independently Owned Business offers.
As Kingston becomes more overrun by sprawling "big box" stores, our downtown and homegrown businesses will suffer.
On the other hand, the more localized a city's trade becomes, the less vulnerable it is to the fluctuations of the Global Economy and the whims of the Stock Market.
Benefit to Kingston Citizens:
- strengthens local economy
- reduced environmental impact
- maintain community character
- intangible value of personal interactions
- local business support for local organizations and events
Don't you think our community and its future deserve this kind of support?
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