Locally owned businesses build strong communities. They create a sense of place. They maintain the utility and vitality of town
centers. They foster an active street life. They
strengthen the web of personal interactions
essential to a healthy community. These vital,
but often happenstance, interactions with our
neighbors are becoming less common as people spend more time alone in their cars traversing highways and strip mall parking lots for basic needs. There's much to be said too for the civic
value of doing business with our neighbors-people who greet us by name, send their kids to school with ours, and have a vested interest in the long-term well-being of the community. Local merchants often sponsor cultural events and take a leadership role in community organizations. Although we hear a lot about the charitable giving of big corporations, one study has found that small businesses actually give more than twice as much
per employee to charitable causes as do
large companies.
Local ownership ensures that important business decisions affecting the well-being of the community-whether to carry produce from local farms, stock a controversial book,
pay a living wage, protect natural resources, or contribute to a local charity-are made, not
in distant boardrooms, but locally by people
who live in the community and who will feel the impact of those decisions.

 

 

(excerpted from  10 Reasons Why Vermont's Homegrown Economy Matters
And 50 Proven Ways to Revive It by Stacy Mitchell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance and published by the Preservation Trust of Vermont October 2003.  Available here as a downloadable pdf.)