Local Dollars

I'm going to suggest we all spend, (if we spend,) buying local merchandise and services this holiday season, bypassing all the large format retailers.

Instincts tell me that a larger percentage of your money is recycled back into your community when you utilize local retailers. It is something I always perceived to be correct. Today I took the time to research this opinion and found several published studies, the foremost being the Andersonville study that confirmed my instincts.

Apparently, for every $100 used at a locally owned shop $68 will remain in the community compared to $43 if you use a chain. I can see why -- a local sandwich shop will buy its sourdough from a local baker, unlike Subway, which relies on its vast network of perpetually motoring tractor-trailers to deliver a precisely uniform remotely baked product to each of its franchises.

Yes -- there are economies of scale that favor Subway...but you're only gonna get what the suits in Milford, CT say you're gonna get, based on their R&D CLT (Central Location Test) studies at formal taste events. A local shop has a greater ability to cater to their customer's wants. What price do you put on that?

Additionally, the local baker is employed and his dollars are cycled right back into the economy. Local businesses keep neighborhoods vibrant and unique, and they are fundamentally tied into the future of their community. Subway doesn't give a damn about your local community -- aside from it meeting their demographic criteria and you meeting your franchise sales quotas. Now...perhaps I'm too harsh, and quite likely I don't have all the facts straight about what Subway does contribute to the local economy. But I can be absolutely assured that every Milford executive has no clue how unit #22,303 operates in Elk Grove, and what they might be doing to support the Thundering Herd.

I would like to know, when I buy a $5.99 footlong wheat veggie, how much of that six dollars is funneled to Connecticut to support all the Invoice Auditors, Market Report Administrators, DAI Invoicing Assistants, Paralegals, Customer Care Representatives, Field Consultants, Tax Accountants, and Packaging Technologists needed to keep the franchise axles greased. All I want is a fucking sandwich.