In recent times we have seen an overwhelming support of local businesses. Whether that be with credit card companies giving deals and cashback opportunities, social media trends, or just feeling good about supporting the mom and pop store on the corner. This increase of giving back to the community and just general caring about others has helped lots of neighborhoods in America, not just the businesses themselves.

What a lot of people don’t know is that local businesses aren’t limited to just retail or restaurants. Our insurance office is actually locally owned and operated by Scott Hordis. He lived in the Philadelphia area his entire life and has a deep devotion to helping his community. Scott is involved in the American Heart Association, Delaware County Schools Scholastic Book Clubs, and the Bethel Township Parks and Recreation Board. But for now, let’s talk about the benefits of shopping locally:

Personalized Touch

One of the main reasons many people shop locally is to get a genuine interaction and not be treated like just another statistic in a massive companies annual report. In our instance, you get help saving money on your insurance with a much more personal approach. Our team is constantly talking with our clients over the phone or in our office. Everyone’s tired of needing help with something that should be taking 15 minutes or less, but are unable to get any assistance other than a glorified answering machine. You can call our office anytime during our business hours and get help from an actual person who is more than qualified to help you with all of your insurance needs.

Creates More Jobs

If you didn’t already know, a huge benefit to shopping locally allows for those businesses to expand and hire more people. Creating jobs helps everyone, not just for your community, but for those newly hired and our economy as a whole. The community benefits through tax dollars staying local, but we’ll discuss that later. Those who are being hired (likely) get a higher wage from their previous job, allowing for a better standard of living. Newly created jobs helps the economy by GDP,  or Gross Domestic Product. It’s simple economics: the more money people spend, the more the demand of the product they purchase increases, the better our economy does.

Tax Dollars Stay Local and Reenter the Community

A lot of people don’t even think to consider this as a factor of shopping locally, but it’s one of the most important. Each and every time you purchase a product or service from a local business, the owner pays his or her share of local business taxes back into the community. Your money then reenters the community, providing for a positive economic structure. Essentially, your money gets recycled. Why is this important? The money that’s being recycled goes directly to beautifying wherever it is you call home. The tax dollars being recycled goes to parks, infrastructure, cleanups, etc. 

More Sustainable

I took AP Environmental Science and a few classes on sustainability in college, yet haven’t heard about the benefits shopping locally can provide for the environment until researching for this article. When shopping locally, you are directly supporting locally grown, made, and operated businesses rather than multi-billion dollar conglomerates. For these corporate powerhouses to transport their goods to retailers, they produce large amounts of carbon emissions resulting in air pollution. Amazon said that they produced 60.64 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2020, which was a 15% increase from their previous year. Although it may not seem like it, these carbon emissions will have deathly effects on the future of our population. Reducing these emissions to slow climate change could prevent millions of premature deaths due to air pollution over the next century.

Closing 

With certain companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google who seemingly just get larger and larger, there is no better time to start shopping locally if you haven’t already. From decreasing our carbon emissions to getting cashback on your credit card, there is a long list of benefits to shop local. People often don’t give many small stores a chance thinking they are more expensive but they often have competitive prices to their competitors. Our office has constantly changing rates in order to remain competitive. Remember local business applies to all different fields, support your local insurance agent today. With a 97% customer satisfaction rate we can almost guarantee you won’t be disappointed: call or click to speak with an agent or to learn more today!