A grocery store closed in our town recently. It was one of three on our main street and, while we had been told some weeks ago that the end was coming, the closing was still something of a shock.
Who do you blame? The owners, their financial institution, the people who didn’t shop there, the ones who did but didn’t buy enough, the dwindling population, good roads, larger stores in nearby towns, discount stores in the city?
All of the above? None of the above?
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As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
I don’t pretend to know.
What I do know is that losing a business in a small town is like losing a member of the family.
That’s why it is so important for people in a small community, wherever that community may be, to work together.
Case in point: in one community, which was hosting a large sporting event, organizers “thought” they couldn’t get certain items at home so ordered them from a nearby city then, because the cost was so high, went to local merchants asking them to donate goods and services so the committee could stay within its budget.
Had committee members asked, a local merchant could have met their needs at a reasonable price and everyone would have benefited.
Case in point: Merchants in small towns are constantly being bombarded with requests from their schools, sports teams, musical festival committees, homecoming committees, fair committees and what have you for donations.
In at least one case I know of, the people doing the asking hadn’t been seen to shop in a local business in living memory. This created a lot of hard feeling.
Case in point: one business lost a valuable contract because it had to subcontract a job to a city firm. The people ordering the job said if it had to go to the city they might as well take it there themselves. They overlooked the fact that this caused a lot more expense for themselves in terms of time and travel, and that they weretaking away a commission from the local merchant.
Granted, you can’t buy everything at home. But if you just take the time to look, it’s amazing what you can buy.
And, quite often, what can’t be bought off the shelf can be ordered.
If you’re still searching around for a new year’s resolution, try this on for size: resolve, for the rest of 1998, to help keep your rural community alive by shopping at home first.
You’ll be helping your local merchants, but most of all, you’ll be helping yourself.
