Merchants Reach Out

Sometimes we see some tremendous acts of community service that one of the really big businesses in town takes on. A huge international bank may donate some huge statue to the local park. A big oil company who has been in the city since it was started might fund a library or a new museum. When these things happen, those big businesses usually get their names attached to those projects. And while we are all grateful for the contribution these businesses make to our towns, nobody is kidding themselves that they just do that as part of smart business and to take the write off.

It is sad to be so cynical but when we think of true community service, it isn’t some massive company that has no real face or personality to us that really makes a difference. It is when that local merchant who runs the local five and dime or ice cream shop or that new business getting started pitches in that we really see the “community” part of community service start to mean something.

They say that small business really is the heart of our economy. But small business is what makes any city or town in America thrive. Even if the business is a branch of a large national chain, if the business functions for very long in your neighborhood, it doesn’t take long for it to become a local business.

Local merchants have good reasons to get involved in community service projects that are even more compelling than the reasons huge companies do it. Huge companies do it because they went to a seminar in New York where some hot shot wrote a book telling them it’s a good idea to appease the locals. But with a local business, there are no hot shots telling them how to appease anyone. They ARE the locals and they love your community just as much as anyone.

“Love” is a term not lots of people apply to the place they live very much. But our immediate neighborhood with the video store across the street, the pizza place just up the block and the grocery store that employs kids from your daughter’s Sunday School class just a mile away all make up a local neighborhood that you do have feelings for. So it is not wrong to want to make an investment in the businesses and public use spaces that will improve the quality of life for everyone you know.

Too often we sit around and wait for the government to kick in and make our lives better and improve things are broken down. We put too much value on the idea that “I paid my taxes, not the mayor can just get down here and fix our park”. The pivotal word in that complaint is “our”. The town you live in and particularly the part that means a lot to you is yours and it is all of our jobs to take care of what means a lot to us.

At the local level, it is the local merchant who can really make a difference in improving the quality of life for his family and the families that shop with him. By working together with other local merchants, you can fund small community service projects and even get out of the store and roll up your sleeves and help out yourself. When you do that, you will get a feeling of pride in YOUR town and in your neighborhood. And that pride will be shared by your neighbors who, incidentally, are also your best customers.