Shop Local

We hear this a lot. As a small business owner, I agree with this a lot. I will spend a little extra to buy local too. As long as it is within reason.

If possible, I buy my climbing shoes and my running shoes locally. I will pick Beauty's Boutique or Suite One if I want to buy some clothes. I'd pick The Woodsmen if I wanted a jacket or some chalk. I love Blaze'n Burrito.  Andy buys his brewing supplies from GrowFresh.

I would rather eat at Friday's or Beef O Brady's rather than Olive Garden.

Wait a minute...WHAT??????

Yeah, that's right, I feel like I need to clear the air. We say shop local, shop local, but them we turn our noses up at franchises.Turns out a lot of places we recognize as being everywhere can be locally owned too.

Guess what? When you eat, shop, or whatever you do at a franchise, you are supporting the local economy. They are providing jobs, they are buying things in town, they do care.

Ok, so not all franchises are locally owned. It's worth checking out before you slam it.

I know you may not think you are slamming them, but as a franchisee when you say to avoid these types of places and go elsewhere in order to "shop local" , I just don't like it.

Did you know that many McDonald's are locally owned? So is Sonic. So is Burger King.

Andy was talking with a guy at the climbing gym whose family owns four Mcdonald's. Andy said it was hard to look at him and think that eating at McDonald's (some of them) isn't shopping local. I knew a girl growing up whose family owned a Sonic. The parents of a kid I went to high school with with opened a Burger King.

There are over 300 Plato's Closets in the country and each and everyone of them is locally owned.

Buffalo Wild Wings is a franchise. I'm so excited that one of these is coming to Fort Smith. I have talked with the owner of the Fort Smith one. I have met the owner of Friday's. I have met the owner of Beef O Brady's. How could you say that you aren't shopping local?

Don't hate on these places just because the owners chose to buy a franchise.

These local business owners still put a lot of blood and sweat into their business.

One argument I heard was that franchises don't support the local economy. These businesses will use their parent company for supplies and services, so they aren't pumping money back into the local economy. This isn't so.

Here's a small list of stuff Plato's Closet uses the local area for:
pest control
air conditioning repair
window washing
employees
some office supplies
all of our used inventory
our sign
electricians
plumbers
advertising
carpet cleaning and water removal (thank you premiere carpet cleaning for coming to our rescue in the middle of the night.)

and the list probably could go on.

So how could you say supporting a franchise is not supporting local business? If you still feel like this is true, let's talk. Maybe just a short conversation with Andy and I will change your mind.