Some interesting reading in the comments section of a local website. Current dialogue seems to focus on shopping in local businesses. Comments seem to range from pricing to customer service. A few folks have even suggested that they prefer to shop elsewhere. Ouch.
Wanted to share a couple of thoughts on this topic. Am continually amazed at the number of folks who will travel elsewhere to try and save a few dollars. In some instances, real savings can be made. Some local businesses just don't have the buying power that larger volume businesses might have in bigger cities.
However, what really fries the bacon are these same folks who are willing to travel out of town to save a buck or two who then visit local merchants asking for a donation for a kids, church, or civic cause. How can they expect local merchants to support their cause, when they are not making the effort to support local business?
Please remember that local businesses are folks who are paying wages to our residents. They live here too. Their kids go to our schools and they attend our churches. They shop locally, even when they know they can get some things for less elsewhere. They gladly support local causes, even when the folks doing the asking aren't their customers. But they should be!
For those folks who suggest that they can get a better price elsewhere, then maybe they need to solicit for their causes elsewhere too.
Shhhhh! It's a Secret.
Next month your chamber is partnering with Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) at SMSU to offer a Secret Shoppers Program for local businesses. It's free to our members. You just need to sigh up first. It's a great opportunity for local businesses to have SIFE members secretly shop their business to check on customer service, store appearance, and the quality shopping experience. Results and a seminar are scheduled for later in the month. Contact the chamber office for more details.
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2 comments:
Your observations, on shopping local, are generally spot-on. Your point misses the mark in assuming that every local merchant charges more because they do not have the volume of merchants in larger cities. Your point misses to the greatest degree with regard to some large ticket item merchants in Marshall.
There are a noticeable number of large ticket items for which tangible savings can be garnered simply by driving to shop in Redwood Falls, Pipestone, or a handful of other communities that are half the population of Marshall, and more remote. The Marshall merchants of these larger ticket items count on the remoteness of Marshall and jack-up prices. Generally speaking too, these Marshall-based merchants of larger ticket items are not know in our community as remarkable in their contributions to local charities, churches, or causes.
To repeat ... your point is valid, but not for all local merchants.
I for one see a shopping trip as a getaway. Going to Sioux Falls for the day is rather fun. Not so much that I don't like shopping here it just seems to be much more fun somewhere else. Yes the women tend to shop till they drop and sleep on the way home. Also when we are there we always try to eat something that we can't get at home. I think Marshall has all it needs to offer. I just like going to Sioux Falls to Wild Water West to the Canaries game or to school shop. Whatever the reason we still shop in Marshall and proud of it.
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