Editorial: Shopping locally is an investment in our community

Your locally bought latte helps keep more than just one business going. Photo / Unsplash

Have you invested in our community this week?

You probably have without realising it. If you have grabbed your morning coffee from one of our (many — we are truly spoilt for choice in our district) coffee stalls or cafes, popped into the local supermarket to grab the ingredients for dinner, bought some meat for the barbecue from a local butcher, or made any local purchase at all, then yes, you have invested in our community.

Shopping locally is more than just saving yourself a long drive on a pothole-ridden highway to the nearest bland mall or big-box store. Shopping locally means saving more than just a few kilometres of petrol and the cost of parking.

Shopping locally means helping the owner of your local hardware store put some money aside in their savings this week, and it means helping pay the wage of the local teenager who is saving for their college or uni fees. Shopping locally means investing in the people who live in our district, most of whom don’t just run a business in the area, but themselves invest right back into our community, by employing locals, buying their own business supplies locally, donating items to fundraisers and raffles, and even donating their own time as volunteers to a wide range of groups and activities.

Your local store or business owner might also be the local guide leader or a volunteer with Riding for the Disabled. The staff they employ might also be volunteer foster carers for one of our great animal rehoming agencies or members of the local Rotary or Lions group who give up so much of their free time doing good for our community. The part-timer who works there on Saturday mornings might also be one of the many volunteers giving their time freely at the TET Kings Theatre, or perhaps they help run a toddler music session at the local church.

Our community needs these people, and we need our local shops and businesses to remain in town. Without them we lose much more than just a bricks-and-mortar store, we lose the very essence of what makes our district a great place to live, work and play.

It is false economy to shop out of town when the same items or services are available here. Not only are you paying for your travel and parking (unlike Stratford where parking is free), but you will also pay dearly in the long run as well. When was the last time the owner of a big-box electronics store hand delivered a much-needed device to your home at 6pm in the evening when your family were isolating and needed to do their schoolwork online? Have you ever been let into a shop at a city mall five minutes before they actually opened because you urgently needed an exercise book for your child that day at school?

So this week, make the choice to invest in our district by investing in the people who make it such a great place to be, and do your bit to ensure there is still a thriving community here for many years to come.