Hi, I’m Shaun, Marketing & Communications Manager for the Rockwall Area Chamber of Commerce, and I bought online. I didn’t buy Chamber, I didn’t even Buy Local.I bought the 2nd best reviewed item on Amazon for about $20 more than I wanted to spend out of pure laziness.

It was a dog bed. See the old one my pitadore had was, well old and stinky. I was about to spend the day cleaning all 800 square feet of my one bedroom condo and didn’t want ANYTHING left to stink it up. So when I was at Chamber Partner Walmart getting carpet cleaner I took at look at the dog beds. They had them in medium, had them in large, but my 90 pound lab/pit mix would NOT fit on one of those. I was in a hurry and didn’t want to waste time visiting another store, so I text my wife they didn’t have what I was looking for and left. We can handle this later.

An hour or so later my phone buzzes:

“Found these on Amazon”
“The first one has a suede cover, I don’t like that, go with the the second”

“Ok”

And just like that we fell into the trappings of being millenials and took money out of the local economy - I used technology to make my life easier at the expense of supporting a local retailer. And to add insult to injury, I ordered a coffee from Starbucks using their app on the way out of Walmart instead of going to a place like Book Club Cafe for a quick cuppa.

It’s not like I couldn’t order what I wanted Walmart.com, or gone to Pet Co. or PetsMart and gotten something similar. But because I was busy and my wife was at work, we took the easy way out, clicked that alluring “Add To Cart” button and the deed was done.

This isn’t even about shopping at a big box vs little guy either. Big Box isn’t a bad thing. They often times offer more variety at a lower price, not to mention being owned by or managed by locals. But as someone who works for the local Chamber, someone who has a Chamber/Local 1st ideology, someone who always tries to shop and dine local, I was ashamed that I broke a three month long streak of not buying anything online that I could get locally. It may sound like I am being hard on myself, but how many times do we fall into that trap?

Late night shopping in bed - “I’ve got a busy day tomorrow, the kid needs new baseball pants. Let’s go to Amazon and get it checked off my list.”

Or

“It’s going to take a local retailer four days for the top I want to come in, but Amazon will have it here in two, guaranteed. I’ll just add it to my cart…”

Or

“Traffic is SOOOO bad around town on weekends, I’m not going downtown to shop. I can find what I want on websites for big box stores and have it here next week.”

But as we start to do that more often, it hurts our local economy. We all know the talking points on buying local - creates jobs, keeps money in the community, supporting your neighbors, all the feel good one liners - but let’s look at some hard facts on shopping local:

1) When you shop local. $68 out of every $100 stays local compared to just $48 when you shop at a national chain.https://www.amiba.net/resources/multiplier-effect/

2) Buying local increases community health - When you buy produce from the Rockwall Farmers Market (every Saturday, beginning May 4th) you’re more than likely buying fruits and vegetables that have not been treated with pesticides, eggs from pasture raised chickens and meat that is free from hormones.https://academic.oup.com/cjres/article-abstract/5/1/149/326109?redirectedFrom=fulltext

https://www.well.org/conscious-consumers/10-advantages-of-buying-local/

3) Buying local keeps our community unique. The character of our town is defined not only by the people here, but the businesses that operate here as well. No where else in the world has one of a kind wedding dresses at Providence Place down the street from some of the best pizza and mediterranean cuisine from Zanata which is a stones throw from a burger shack operated out of a guys house. There’s a lot of things that make Rockwall unique, but our business community helps to bring us all together.

At Lakeside Allure you’ll run into your neighbor from down the street, find out your going to the same ladies lunch and make plans to ride together.

At Dodie’s or Sideways a childhood friend you lost touch with will walk in for a quick drink that turns into hours of reminiscing.

At your early morning OrangeTheory class, you'll make new friends to help you reach your fitness goals.

Shopping local is more than keeping dollars in Rockwall County, shopping local builds community.
 

Will I ever forgive myself for taking $20 out of the local economy? Maybe. But you can avoid that guilt with this Shop Local Two Step:

1) Think Local First

2) Shop Rockwall County

It’s that simple. Are the deals that online retailers put out too good to turn down sometimes? Sure. But by doing the Shop Local Two Step more often than not, you help keep Rockwall great.

What better opportunity to Shop Local than to participate in Downtown Rockwall’s Think Local First Day. This Saturday, May 4th, the Downtown Rockwall Association and Rockwall Area Chamber of Commerce/Visit Rockwall along with the City and County of Rockwall are presenting a full day of shopping local! Catch the Farmer’s Market Kick Off from 8:00 pm - 2:00 pm. At 1:45 pm, Rockwall County Judge David Sweet will welcome all that have come out. Beginning at 2:00 pm, a Sip & Stroll will begin featuring dozens of craft beer in local shops. Try a few new beers while you shop. The day will cap off with Cinco de Mayo performance from 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm, just in time for you to grab dinner at one seven restaurants Downtown.

I’ll be shopping local this Saturday and always, will you?