How Shopping Local Impacts Your Community
We often hear people say it is important to shop local, but do we actually do it? And why is it important? We may have one or two local businesses we frequent but we often find ourselves at a big chain or shopping online. As a local business we often think about what Small Business Saturday and the term shop local mean but to others these are things that go unnoticed. We decided we wanted to explain what these terms mean to us, how shopping local impacts our store and the community we live in.
Swags Sport Shoes is a company focused on supporting our community. Because of our customers we are able to do more than we ever thought possible. According to an article by Bank Midwest, https://www.bankmidwest.com/2016/11/why-you-should-shop-locally/, “approximately 48 percent of revenue generated by independent establishments is recirculated throughout the economy, whereas the local circulation of a chain store’s revenue is 13.6 percent (para, 3).” A more tangible way to think of this is by breaking it down into dollar amounts. According to the American Independent Business Alliance, on average 3 times more money is returned to the local economy when spent at a local business versus a big box chain and give twice as much money back to the community (para, 2, 12) https://www.amiba.net/resources/localhero/ .
One thing unique to Swags is the sense of family we have. Our hope is when you walk into our doors you feel like a friend. We want you to become a regular, whether or not you are shopping for something or just want to come in to catch up on what's going on. We encourage you to take pride in your shoe store and community. Shop local means supporting your friends and sharing with them your talents, expertise and experiences. We each have different gifts and abilities, why not support someone who can offer you something personable and different.
We are able to give back to the community because of you, so thank you! Thank you for trusting us to fit you in shoes, walk with you through injuries, cheer you on in races, and support you in everyday life. This is what shopping local does. It helps instill a sense of community. We do not only encourage you to shop local but we are there with you. Whenever possible we support local businesses in our shops. Whether this is the food we bring in for our events, vendors we partner with etc. It takes us supporting each other to make a community.