Why You Should Still Be Shopping Small

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Small Business Saturday is long since over and Christmas has passed.

However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be keeping our small businesses in mind when shopping for various other events and holidays (*cough**cough* Valentine’s Day). 

If you’re shopping for your special someone, keep in mind small boutiques, the local flower shop, or other business owned and operated by people in your community.

This season, Sauk Valley Media has given us a great list of 10 reasons to Support the Small businesses in your area.

As a small business ourselves, we can appreciate the support of independent business owners that the Sauk Valley Area has shown, and even included some photos of our community involvement in past years. 

 

Why You Should Support Locally Owned Businesses:

1. Local Character and Prosperity

  • In an increasingly homogenized world, communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character have an economic advantage.

 

2. Community Well-Being

  • Locally owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a web of economic and social relationships, and contributing to local causes.

 

3. Local Decision-Making

  • Local ownership ensures that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions.

 
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4. Keeping Dollars in the Local Economy

  • Compared to chain stores, locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local economy, enriching the whole community.

 

5. Job and Wages

  • Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in some sectors, provide better wages and benefits than chains do.

 

6. Entrepreneurship

  • Entrepreneurship fuels America’s economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.

 

7. Public Benefits and Costs

  • Local stores in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls.

 

8. Environmental Sustainability

  • Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walk-able town centers-which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.

 

9. Competition

  • A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.

 

10. Product Diversity

  • A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based, not on a national sales plan, but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees

 

As you can see, small businesses play a big role in the stability of our local economy and morale. 

Even Hugh F. Miller Insurance is a small, locally and family owned and operated business. Read more on our story here

As a small business, we appreciate our local, loyal customer base.

We enjoy insuring friendly faces. 

Want to support a small business in the area? 

Here’s a few that we love working with, and hope you do too!

Rock Falls Chamber of Commerce

We have been active participants in many RF Chamber Events at HFM. Along with auctions and charity events, we participated in the Chamber’s “Bridge the Community 5k/10k Walk or Run” this past summer. This event was an attempt to bond the two cities, Rock Falls and Sterling, in a walk that spanned across the bridge.

Folsom’s Bakery

Folsom’s is a vital bakery in the Rock Falls area, although many within surrounding areas know and cherish the delicious treats from the bakery as well. Folsom’s even makes personalized cookies when asked. They even made us some HFM inspired cookies with mustaches that a local body shop dropped off as a treat for our staff. Yum!!

Primitive Frills

This local shop is located in Sterling, and has crafts and decor for every style. We have staff who has personally bought pieces from this store. The owner is always there to greet us with a smile, and she hosts craft nights with groups. Great local business!

Which local small business do you love to shop at?

**Originally posted in Sauk Valley Media Newspaper. For more news from the Sauk Valley area, visit saukvalley.com