How do you support your community? Volunteering? Conservation? Education? 

What about shopping local? Because it matters where you choose to spend your dollars.

It’s always been tough to run your own business, but never more than right now, amid a pandemic. Businesses that didn’t need an online presence before felt the heavy weight of competition with online retailers in the March shutdown. Small business owners in your town pay taxes with you, attend your church, and have children who go to school with yours. And although business won’t be going back to normal anytime soon, you can help.

Whether it’s choosing Saturday night takeout from the mom & pop Italian restaurant or buying running shoes from your neighbor’s shop on the corner, shopping small provides big benefits.

Local businesses are more involved in giving back to their communities. Entrepreneurs teach others how to start their own businesses through continuing education and nonprofit organizations. Sixty-six percent of small businesses donate to local charities. They sponsor kids’ sports teams and donate to local causes—arts festivals, street fairs, and gala fundraisers have a big local business presence. When you shop local, your dollars go further toward helping the whole community recover from COVID-19.

Many local business owners already know you. We tend to perk up when someone calls us by name. And, admit it, few shopping experiences are better than when your local gift store owner does something like holding back a new hand cream because she remembered you like lavender.

Ever had fried biscuits in Nashville? Has anyone knit you a sweater? Did you buy a handmade mask this year? You already know the value of a one-of-a-kind possession. Seek it locally.

Make it a priority to stop at the local farm stand for your in-season produce. Fresher food is more nutritious, better-tasting food. There’s also less packaging. What’s not to love?

Fewer miles are spent to get the goods to you, and to get you to the goods. The stores are smaller and don’t take up the hundreds of thousands of square feet and materials needed for big warehouses and distribution centers. Keeping farmland and undeveloped land as is helps local wildlife