Buying locally

If you're from the Toledo area, you may have heard current radio advertising where local business owners repeat, "Buy local. Build local." And there's a new non-profit organization in the area called Toledo Choose Local whose members are business owners who want to promote the concept of buying local.

There was an article in the paper earlier this week about four locally-owned businesses that are closing (plus there were more last week). But the very next day, there was a Blade article entitled "Franchises show resiliency."

We have tried to buy local for years. The restaurants we frequent are all locally owned (vastly different than a chain restaurant with a local franchise owner): Ansara's Steakhouse, Brownstone Tavern, and Al Smith's to name a few. And with Toledo being a 'restaurant town," there are many locally-owned ones from which to choose.

I recently read an article about Wal-Mart. While proponents tout how many jobs Wal-Mart brings to a community, studies have shown that more jobs are lost when Wal-Mart comes to town - primarily the jobs that were in the locally owned smaller businesses, including "mom and pop" stores that are particularly burdened when the big-box behemoth comes to town.

I'm a "mom and pop" store. I especially think of my maternity clothes. (You may know that I claim to have the largest maternity selection in the area.) I fortunately don't have much competition in the area when it comes to maternity clothes. But you never know what will happen.

I hope people take pride in this area and want to support our local businesses. My new mantra? "Buy local. Build local." It'll be good for all of us.

What will you do to support local businesses?