Now that another holiday shopping season has passed, an alarming trend is becoming more and more prevalent among believers. Often for misguided reasons, believers are increasingly likely to patronize large corporations than they are to give their business to local merchants. This reflects three misconceptions and ignores three benefits of doing business with our neighbors.
Misconception Number 1: “Local people don’t need to know my business.”
Many of us feel safer and more under the radar when we do business with far-away corporations as opposed to local merchants. We don’t see a human being looking at our purchases, so we feel our purchases are anonymous. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. While local merchants generally appreciate your business and protect your information, online and large corporate merchants routinely sell your data so that it is not only available, but also used to market to you for years to come.
Misconception Number 2: “Local stores don’t have what I need.”
It is certainly impossible for a local, brick-and-mortar store to compete with an online warehouse when the desired trinket is rare, and that may indeed be an appropriate use of the online store. The problem arises, however, when customers take all of thei ...
