|
Why buy local? There are many community benefits from buying locally wherever possible • It enhances the local economy and helps both established local businesses and local start-ups (entrepreneurs) • It helps local businesses provide local jobs • More and better local businesses provide more local choices (more things to buy, more local services, skills and expertise, more local competition, better local quality) • Shopping locally helps the environment (it requires less car travel, and therefore less pollution and less need for public infrastructure) • It also enhances our community. A true community provides social cohesion, friendship and support. It is better to recommend and deal with people you know locally than with total strangers. Economic theory says that “free trade”, open markets, and the widest possible geographic competition give consumers lower prices and more choice. This theory is fine so far as it goes, although it tends to ignore the social benefits of having a strong, efficient and prosperous local community. BuyMaroubra promotes local competition, based on personal references. Through our monthly Chamber of Commerce gatherings and other contacts, we each know something about other participating businesses. We appreciate it is up to all of us to provide value in the goods and services we sell. In a community like Maroubra, there is nowhere to hide. If any business did not provide good value, the personal referrals would dry up. Maroubra has its share of hard-luck / dysfunctional families, anti-social behavior and juvenile crime. These things flourish in conditions of anonymity. They are always worse in places where people do not know one another and nobody cares. Fortunately there are various individuals and organizations in Maroubra working to provide more cohesion in our community. Our Chamber already helps in this direction by organizing the Maroubra Fun & Oktoberfest each year, with the support of Rotary, Randwick City Council, the South Maroubra SLSC and other local clubs and individuals. This is Maroubra’s biggest and best family and community day. BuyMaroubra contributes by promoting a local economy in which there is a fair chance you will know the owner of the businesses you deal with and the people who work there, and where you will be greeted as a neighbour as well as a customer. |
