Over the next few weeks, we’ll all get a chance to make the holiday season a better one for hundreds of local businesses.

The downtown districts, local businesses, mom and pop stores, artists, craftsmen, and nonprofits of Western North Carolina will all be trying to entice consumers to spend some money with them as Christmas approaches. Do it, and your gift giving should be even more meaningful because you will be helping the community you call home.

If we stand accused of sounding like a shill for the local chambers of commerce, then so be it. The truth of the matter is that choosing to spend money with local businesses or buy local agriculture products makes our communities stronger.

No one is going to try and insult anyone’s intelligence by telling them to boycott the national discount chains. Those stores have become a necessary link in providing us the goods we need at the best prices. The fact is we would have a hard time getting along without Wal Mart and all the other marts.

The same is true for doing some shopping on the Internet. Most of us spend money there, and there are good deals to be had.

But the large corporations that dominate much of the retail and Internet world don’t do much for their local communities. George Bush and others are telling us that spending money will help the economy, but we’ll suggest taking that a step further — spend money locally.

The owners of our downtown stores, local businesses and area farms are the people we slide into a pew beside at church or stand in line with at the grocery store checkout line. The craftsmen who make the fine pieces of art Western North Carolina is known for or the people who own restaurants we dine at have children in the same schools we all work to support. They are also the same ones whose names are etched on the uniforms and T-shirts seen at Little League games and AYSO soccer matches. They are the ones the local fire departments and United Way go to when they are raising money, the ones who support nearly all of our local nonprofits.

Globalization is going to help many of the world’s poor countries raise their standard of living. The same economic principle that is robbing this country (and this region) of manufacturing jobs is providing schools, health care and education for the newly employed factory workers in the Philippines and Brazil. And we will buy the cars they build and the shoes they sew.

But buying from home-grown companies keeps local people in work, keeps local firms in business, and keeps money circulating in our communities. Buying from national, out-of-town firms means that profits, dividends and often wages are siphoned to other areas, depressing the local economy, reducing employment prospects, and leading to economic and social stagnation and decline.

In a globalized economy, we must be conscious of the effects of our buying and spending choices. The strength of the local economy depends on the commitment of local consumers.

 

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The Smoky Mountain News