It was a chilly Tuesday evening last December, just a few weeks before Christmas. Downtown was quiet, with shining Christmas decorations overhead as I walked into a local shop looking for a specific gift for a friend.
Behind the counter was a familiar face, someone who has worked in the shop for over a decade. Within two minutes, she didn’t just point me to the right aisle, she reminded me that the item was best operated under specific conditions, which I had not thought of. With some further conversation she helped me find the perfect gift for my friend.
As I walked out with my purchase, it struck me that we often talk about shopping locally as an act of kindness toward store owners. We frame it like a holiday good deed. But that interaction wasn’t charity, it was a trade of real value. And what happened to the $50 I handed over to that friendly shop owner, went far deeper than just buying a specific gift.
Later that week, I saw that same shop sponsoring a local community event. The owner of that store doesn’t transfer their monthly profits to a corporate headquarters across the globe, they use them to hire local staff, pay local property taxes, and hire local contractors when the store roof needs fixing.
When you follow that single $30 bill over the course of a month, it moves through our town like a thread. It helps the cashier pay her tuition at the nearby college. She spends part of her paycheck at the bakery down the street. The bakery owner uses that revenue to hire a local electrician when an oven acts up.
By the time the new year rolls around, that same money has circulated through three or four hands, generating several times its original value right here in our neighborhood. It’s what keeps our commercial tax base steady, which in turn keeps our personal residential property taxes from taking the full brunt of municipal costs like paving our roads and keeping our parks lit.
When we buy everything online with a single click, that thread is cut. The money vanishes instantly, heading straight out of our community, leaving behind empty storefronts that eventually shift the tax burden back onto our own households.
This year your Local First team (the Chamber, Municipality of Strathroy-Caradoc, the Strathroy BIA, and the Mount Brydges Business Association) have partnered to create the first Local Christmas Gift buying guide. The guide will be delivered to all households in Strathroy-Caradoc with extra copies available at participating retailers and the Strathroy-Caradoc Municipal Customer Service Center on Frank Street.
This Christmas, as you cross items off your shopping list, look past the slogans. Think about the family running the corner bookshop, or the barista who knows your order by heart. Every time you choose to buy from them, you aren’t just buying a gift for a loved one, you’re investing in the very fabric of the place we all call home.
