How You Can Benefit from Shopping Locally
As time goes on, it’s becoming increasingly obvious we live in the age of big business.
Amazon ships anything and everything straight to our welcome mat. Wal-Mart is the hub for any item you need in a jiffy. Microsoft, Twitter (now X), Apple, and Facebook connect us in more ways than what was thought possible even just 5 years ago.
Generally speaking, these companies provide value to us. For that we give them our money. But what are these corporate monopolies doing to our local businesses? And more importantly, how is this affecting you as consumers?
Small businesses were once the backbone of our country. But with every new day, it seems like they’re losing more and more ground. Consumers are suffering, and they don’t even know it.
Below, I’ll explain how monopoly businesses are created, the effect it has on consumers, and why you need to support your local businesses now more than ever.
Local Businesses Offer Greater Diversity of Goods and Services
The larger the up-front cost of starting a business, the smaller the number of people that can afford to open up their own business. Most local businesses don’t have enormous sums of cash to start, so instead, they’re subject to spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in registrations, regulations, licenses, and more.
For a restaurant to “legally” serve food, they must go through endless amounts of regulation and licensing hoops to open their doors for business. If they want to serve alcohol, the headaches are magnified ten-fold. It can take months of waiting and thousands of dollars for a small business to finally open their doors.
The high cost of jumping through regulatory and licensing hoops stifles variability and selection choice in the consumers’ marketplace.
Monopolies Constrict the Free Market
This tragedy became increasingly obvious when politicians shut down small businesses and restaurants during the coronavirus scare, while allowing business to increase for Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Amazon and others. These multinational businesses have deep pockets, and therefore the power to influence politicians and their decisions around the world.
Lines for chain fast food restaurants wrap around the building. Local bars and restaurants suffer from even more regulation and scrutiny regarding masks and limited-capacity seating.
Meanwhile, people are congregating in-person at Wal-Mart and other department stores, often in larger numbers than before, wearing thin paper masks that’re proven ineffective.
Big business is limiting our choices to shop in the marketplace. The government is cheering them on. Our local businesses are hurting, and so are you.
This power company has a monopoly, granted by the government, to provide electricity to a certain area.
I challenge you to find one business, any standing operation, that is still doing business with a 1.4/5 star rating!
A free market would have taken this company out of business a long time ago, and a better-run business would have taken its place.
So why hasn’t one replaced it by now? Why are they still in business?
Regulations, registrations, and licenses.
Who wants those regulations in place?
The power companies and other monopolized businesses.
Why do they encourage these licenses and regulations?
So that they can continue to operate as a monopoly, without any repercussions of bad business-like behavior! Government vows to not let monopolies take over. Yet, they enable that very thing to happen.
"Big Hair"
Yet “big hair” (LOL) encourages licenses and regulations to keep a large portion of revenue in their already established, corporate salon chains.
The larger the barrier to entry in a business, the less competition that business faces.
High school graduates with a passion for hair have to pay thousands of dollars, just to “legally” do what families and friends have been doing in their backyard since the dawn of time!
But this doesn’t only affect those with a passion for hair. This affects you too!
If you go to a salon to get a men’s haircut, you expect to pay over $25, not including a tip. Some women pay over $70 for a haircut.
If the government allowed the free market to flourish, there’d be less monopolies. This means more hair salons and more hair stylist jobs, which means more competition. More competition means cheaper and better haircuts for you!
Don’t believe me?
The Free Market Stays Winning
One clear example of the free market reigning supreme over government regulation can be seen with electronics, especially TVs.
TVs have gone from being giant boxes taking up half the living room for the price of thousands of dollars, to now being wall-mounted Ultra HD 4K screens for only a couple hundred dollars!
The chart below gives you an easy comparison of the free market vs regulated, government funded markets.
Can you imagine what would happen if we got government-established monopolies out of healthcare and education, and let the free market take over?
The best part about free markets is that if you don’t like a certaian businesses products or services, you’re free to go somewhere else; it’s a free market!
Instead of voting for corrupt politicians to solve problems in the market, vote with your money. Spend your money at businesses that provide excellent service with the consumer in mind, and those businesses will continue to follow the consumer’s interest in the future.
Getting the government out of the way and letting businesses do business as they see fit means the consumer simultaneously gets cheaper and better products and services.
Monopolies Sell Our Privacies and Freedoms
It’s obvious that people worldwide have given up their privacy for convenience and accessibility.
Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue. In a perfect world, we don’t have people claiming authority over the fruits of our labor. In a world without a government, you make voluntary decisions without the threat of violence.
If you’ve watched the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma”, you know your personal information is sold to the highest bidder.
The government, always being the highest bidder, uses this power against you. Their “gang” of policeman is bigger than yours, and they use your personal data to take away our freedoms.
Shopping locally can help us alleviate this pain and make small but meaningful changes.
In a community, everyone has a small but vested interest in their neighbor’s happiness and well-being. We see these people on a daily, if not weekly basis. These people are our friends and acquaintances, and have similar values to ours. This makes it obvious why you should support your community’s endeavors and promote prosperity in the area you live.
When you decide to shop locally, you’re looking out for yourself. It’s time we take power away from big business and their political cronies and give it to our local communities instead.
Competition Makes Goods and Services Cheaper and Better
Businesses aren’t charities- they exist to make money. When it costs them more to provide a good or service, the customer must pay those higher costs. Often, these extra costs come in the form of taxes and regulation compliance. If there were less regulation and taxes in our economy, all of our products and services would be much cheaper.
If you don’t comply with the licenses and regulations, the government will shut down his business.
With less regulation, the cost of services would be cheaper. Flying would be much more common and economical. With more competition in the aviation industry, consumers would receive better service and cheaper prices. It’d be more common for people to fly state-to-state and still be saving time and money.
In a truly free market, there would be an airline business that doesn’t kick newborn babies off their flights for not wearing a mask.
Local Prosperity
With more money in your pocket, you’d have access to more luxury goods, services, and hobbies. When consumers have more money, the economy progresses and creates better products and services, creating a positive feedback loop. Consumers guide the market with their money!
Local businesses of all sorts would thrive with the increased prosperity of its local people. The only thing standing in the way is government regulation.
The government incentivizes large businesses to set up regulations in order to stifle their competition.
This happens in every area of business from banking, to manufacturing, to mass media, to hair salons and much, much more.
“But what about the customer? Don’t we need regulations and licenses to protect the consumer?”
In a Free Market, Companies Outperform Regulations
Without a governing body, businesses have nobody to appeal to besides the customer! In a free market, the mandatory regulations and licenses would soon be rendered obsolete.
Companies would only be concerned with the interests of the consumers instead of government officials. Businesses would be bending over backwards to ensure local customers visit their store instead of their competitor’s across the street!
Regulation makes our products more expensive. It’s the reason all of our products are made internationally. Local businesses can’t afford to pay their workers in the US.
As it exists now, you can think of the market as “big businesses and the government” vs “small, local businesses and you.”
Supporting our local businesses now more than ever is crucial. By doing so, you help out your neighbors with their own businesses and allow consumers to shop for cheaper and better goods.
You would want your friends and neighbors to turn to you for business, so why not turn to them with yours?
It’s time to foster a welcoming, engaged local community that operates like a free market. Start by shopping locally!
We need to turn to the free market and local businesses in today’s world because:
It broadens our options for buying products and services.
We suffer from unsatisfactory services from government-established monopolies (a power company with 1.4/5 stars.)
It helps us to keep our privacy and freedom from being used against us.
We have cheaper and better goods/services in a local, competitive, free economy.
How You Can Support Local Businesses
Order From Local Restaurants Near You
Is there a local restaurant or dine-in place in your area that you’ve been meaning to go to? This is your sign to try it out! If you thoroughly enjoy the restaurants food and service, tell everyone you know!
Tip Well
Servers, hostesses, and delivery drivers are part of your local community. When you reward them for a job well done, it incentivizes them to do a good job every time.
Buy Gift Cards
Buying gift cards from your local businesses helps tremendously. They get the much-needed revenue now, and a promise later that you will come back for their goods and services. They know to expect future customers, so they can improve their business to provide a better experience for the consumer.
Support Local Events
Festivals, sporting events, corporate meetings, conventions, are all capable of drawing large crowds of people
After the event is over, the participants often look for local food, a bar to have drinks, or a place to stay overnight. If you can provide excellent service to these people, they’ll gladly recommend their experience to others, paying dividends for you and your local business.
This article explains in detail how recreation is good for boosting local communities.
Write Good Reviews
Do you favor a certain restaurant or store over another? Show your gratitude by leaving a review! Every day people rely on reviews to choose where to shop and eat- especially people new to the area. Help them by promoting your favorite local places!
Stand Up For Your Local Businesses
Supporting your courageous business owners is imperative. These two short videos demonstrate the power that communities have when they stick together.
"If you don't stand up for something, then you'll fall for everything."
