Make Small, Local Business Your Valentine

WITH VALENTINES DAY RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER, and with Valentine's Day raking in roughly $20 billion a year, spreading the love is not just telling that special someone in your life how much they mean to you—but can and should, in my opinion, also be a time for some of that love to be showered onto small and local businesses.

Traditionally people will buy cards, flower arrangements, chocolates, and any number of other things. And many will even head out for a special Valentine dinner as well to top it all off.

It's not the top grossing holiday for retailers and restauranteurs, but with $20 billion to go around, there's still quite a lot they can gain from lovers around the country trying to give their special someone something, well...

SPECIAL.

This Valentine's Day perhaps consider using your local florist instead of opting for one of the big-boys like 1-800-Flowers or Bouqs. If your opting for something sweet, there are probably many small, local candy makers and bakeries who can whip up something special for your significant other.When I lived in Milwaukee, for example, I frequently went to Burke Candy for some delectable chocolate goodness. I'd also buy very nice and affordable gift baskets from the local West Allis Cheese & Sausage Shop instead of opting for other, bigger company options. And depending on where you live, there are always some great choices for stand-alone restaurants to avoid the bigger chains like Ruby Tuesday, Outback, Olive Garden, and the usual common fare there.

The main point here is that whenever possible I try to spread some of the love, and of course some of the money, to small and local business. In so many ways we benefit much more in our communities when we do this—and even beyond the holidays. More of the money we spend stays local and directly benefits the very communities in which we live. And sometimes nothing says love more than taking just a little bit of money from the pockets of the big-boxes. Not that I have anything against big business mind you. But since small business is the real giant when it comes to producing jobs in this country, it's a place you should want to spend your money to help to keep them alive, growing, and prospering.

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY

Yesterday marked the 2nd annual Small Business Saturday®, an event snugly nestled between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and as the people who started this event say, during one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year. Of course it is a bit ironic that the folks behind this whole thing are in fact American Express, who happen to be nearly a $54 billion company.

By any measure, that's no small potatoes.

But neither is the impact that supporting small business has on local economies, and on something I often talk about in my blogs, and in the opinions I write at HubPages; competition. To my mind competition is really at the heart of the entire concept of the free markets. I have argued for some time now that in many ways, when we leave out the little shop on the corner in our regular shopping, we narrow the field. We break the opportunity for any real competition. Our choices become fewer, and what we have left is to choose from a shorter list of people in the marketplace. At the end of the day that means that they, the bigger businesses get to dictate the status quo. They get to dictate the prices in the market, and frankly the wages and benefits that worker's receive in the marketplace. It becomes more of a circumstance of "take it or leave it."

Yeah, that's still the free markets working. But is this the kind of free markets we really want? Is this really how we want our choices to be offered to us? In these narrow and limited ways?

What those big box stores, and huge conglomerations of eateries and banks, and other types of businesses are really saying to us is, "Where else are you going to shop?" For that matter, where else are you going to work?

If there is no pressure on the bigger businesses to pay higher wages, or to offer better choices on the shelves, they'll just do whatever brings them the most profit—heedless of the overall cost to each and every one of us. Keep in mind that right now when the choices are so limited, these businesses are only competing with each other on likewise limited terms. Terms that they ultimately decide because for most of us, the real competitors in the marketplace are not even considered.

Sure, it does mean that we get cheaper products. But is cheaper really better when we have to give up so much to enjoy it? If lower wages and less benefits are ultimately the result of this narrowed competition, is that truly to any of our benefit? Where has customer service gone? How about quality? Even to a large extent, where has business integrity gone? And again, what has happened to wages?

I'm not saying we give up entirely on the bigger businesses. But I do think that we should be more inclined to shop local whenever we can, and small whenever we can. Just a little bit of market share passed along to a small business operator goes a very long long way. And we're not just limited to shopping local stores by the way. It could be as simple as choosing a jar of salsa made by a small startup in lieu of a jar made by Frito-Lay.

Most of the time spending money small and local means that more than likely a much higher percentage of that money is going to stay right in the community where it gets spent in. Small, local businesses have a habit of also supporting small, local businesses, and so many of the products you'll find on their shelves will be from small, local businesses who employ people in the community, and do other commerce within the community and surrounding areas. The operators themselves often live in the communities as well, and so more of their profits wind up staying local as well as they also shop local.

I've suggested in the past that we spend about 25% locally. That's honestly a number I sort of picked out of the air. Actually devoting 25% of our spending locally, or on smaller businesses overall is a tough deal to do. But if we do spend more often locally, the impact that it will have on our economy going forward will be enormous. The money simply goes farther. The choices will become more. And the opportunity to more easily shop small and local will become more likely.

What I'm saying is that while I applaud the efforts of American Express for starting this, because really what they are doing is creating an awareness for the importance of small business to all business, we ought to be doing this far more often than just one day a year. If we do that, eventually we'll be doing it anyway without even thinking about it because improved competition will keep more players in the marketplace. We'll be spending locally naturally rather than having to do it now, contemplatively.