|
 |
|
| Pledge to Buy Local: I pledge to make every effort to buy goods and services from locally owned businesses. If, for some reason, a locally owned business is not an option, I will look for locally owned franchises and/or nationally owned operations who I know support my community through public service or donations to local not-for-profits. By doing so, I can help keep the money I earn and spend in my community and support those who support me and those around me. |
|
| More random thoughts on the subject... |
| Jobs - When a locally owned business closes the community loses both the tax income and jobs. Locally, when Pages for All Ages closed (ostensibly due to a shift to purchasing from Amazon) those jobs were gone. They were not replaced by another local book shop, the chains stores did not suddenly become busier and need more employees, those jobs were just gone. Same thing when Record Service closed. No new recod shop sprung up in its absence to hire those people. Those jobs were just gone. Amazon employees do not shop in downtown Urbana. None of the profits made at Zappos go towards supporting our local schools. |
|
| Local vs On-line - When Pages for All Ages closed a number of my friends were disappointed because they enjoy hanging out at the book store, browsing through the books, and then ordering them on-line through Amazon. It wasn't until after Pages closed that they saw how that wasn't sustainable. Now eveyone misses the local, full-service bookstore. |
|
| Radio - Most radio stations are owned by giant media conglomerates (for instance, Clear Channel owns 900 radio stations nation-wide). Because of this, they can control what is aired, what news is heard, and what slant the programming has -- nationwide. Locally owned radio provides a local angle to the news and the stories reported. Local radio can also provide more of a community forum. NPR is one of the few radio outlets that does actual investigative reporting. If funding for NPR is cut and/or donations dry up, we will lose an invaluble resource. Our local PBS station (WILL AM/FM) provides so much local programming and works with many groups in the area. If it were to vanish there would be a giant gap in our community. |
|
|
|
|
