Benton Courier - EDITORIAL: Shopping locally keeps money at home

Now that Thanksgiving is just a plate of leftovers, Christmastime is upon us. Lights are going up. Harvest wreaths are turning to evergreens on many front doors. We’re impatiently waiting special events, like the annual Christmas parade and Saline County Courthouse lighting ceremony in Downtown Benton on Monday evening, and the Christmas in Bryant celebration next Thursday. It’s even turned cold — sort of. And shoppers are making lists of Christmas presents and filling them.
   That’s where you come in, the shoppers. Each year, we attempt to call to the attention of the gift-buying public how important it is to look first to your local merchant before driving far out of town, ordering something from a catalog or purchasing something off the Internet.
   When you shop close to home, the benefits are many. Local retail merchants provide goods to the public all year long. They pay taxes. They pay franchise fees. They provide jobs. And they give us a wide array of goods from which to choose.
   Consequently, a dollar spent with a local merchant turns over several times. The owner’s cash register rings, and in various ways, it keeps on ringing. The owner pays herself a wage, buys additional merchandise, sometimes from local suppliers, puts capital back into her business — money that may make its way into the hands of local craftsmen as they make improvements to the business — and she pays salaries, taxes and fees.
   The employees take their paychecks and pay their rent or house payment and their car payment. They buy groceries, pay a dentist, pick out a pair of new shoes, go to a movie or visit one of the many restaurants in the area. And the cycle goes on and on.
   The taxes and fees the merchant pays go toward city and county services police, sheriff and fire protection, street and road improvements, park enhancements, water and sewer improvements and other municipal projects. Tax dollars also make their way to the state, helping us to have the schools, highways and social programs that we enjoy.
   That same cash register is deadly quiet when you take your money and go elsewhere, particularly if that elsewhere is a catalog or an Internet merchant. No local tax is generated, and probably no one from around here profited one dime by those sales.
   We are not denying that the Internet is a fabulous tool, allowing the customer to choose from an assortment of goods that may not even be available locally and from an almost limitless number of online merchants.
   But give the local business people a chance this season. They probably have much of what you’re looking for maybe all of it at a price that’s reasonable and doesn’t include a shipping charge. It’s satisfying to be able to look at something and hold it in your hands before you purchase it.
   The business owners and employees are your friends, neighbors and acquaintances. You see them wherever you go at the mall, downtown, the library, at church, at a football game. They enjoy living here, and by doing what they do, they enhance this place we call home.
   If you order something from afar, you might not pay sales taxes, but you probably pay shipping, and if you think of the taxes as something that benefits you, your community and state, it puts that little bit extra in a whole different light.
   In the end, if you siphon off enough of those local Christmas sales sales that mean the world to local merchants some will suffer and some will fold up entirely.
   On the other hand, if you fill as much of your gift list as you can right where you live, you might be surprised at just how bright the lights of Christmas shine.

   Information for today’s editorial provided in part from Courier press services.

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