The importance of shopping small and local 

Recently I picked up my new mountain bike, a gift to myself and from my husband that I have been dreaming about for many months now. After trying many models and shops, looking online and abroad, I decided to buy it from my very local shop, Pro Cyclery. Of course I was interested in a specific bike but one important factor was to be advised by a female sales person, of similar size to me, who bikes and owns the bike I was looking at. The other is the sense of community that I felt stepping inside the shop.  As a small business myself, I love to support others like me.

Small Business’ are very important because they provide employment and opportunities to their communities. They help stimulate growth locally and keep wealth in the area, by giving money back to the community. This sequence also encourages the development of other small business. I love to support other small business like myself in the Las Vegas community. There are not many independent businesses left, and they can be at risk of being sold and swallowed up by large corporation. A corporation can have good consumer service but how could it ever be the same as going to a local shop and knowing personally who is serving you? This is exactly what I felt entering my local bike shop. That sense of community, of people passionate about biking and keen to share their experience with others. Spending my dollars in a small business, locally owned, made me feel good about the actual spending, thinking that my dollars will go directly to support the families of the people working there and those of the products I bought. I can picture how this contributes to a prosperous community, as well as increasing local character and diversity in a global, sometime homogenized world. Small businesses are also often based on their own interests and have at heart the needs of their customers. This gives a broader range of product choices and much more personalized service. Like Pro Cyclery, all the Las Vegas Photographers provide an amazing array of different product to all their potential clients. In my business I too love to be able to connect to my clients personally and give a customised service, being able to advise them, based on shared experience of being a small business owner and now a mother. 

I am really looking forward to getting on my Mountain Bike now! Naturally I do not have much spare time anymore, so the need to get outside and take some real exercise is important to me. Only a few hours on a cycle trail is invigorating and energizing. I feel better knowing this ‘non-polluting’ activity makes me healthier and happier, as well as helping the local economy. 

Remember, shop small and small local when you can!