I have written before about how I am generally opposed to the idea of buying locally for the sake of keeping money in a particular town, state, or country. I think it goes against the idea of a free market, where one purchases goods or services based on the best price, selection, customer service, etc., and purchasing based on guilt/local loyalty alone discourages those businesses from trying to improve their products or services in order to compete.
However, there are groups that exist primarily to promote this ‘buy locally’ idea; few towns or cities do not have a chamber of commerce and/or other economic development organization.
A friend of mine, let’s call him Bret, provides a certain service. A couple of years ago he was asked to provide that service for a large event in and for his hometown. As the event was run by volunteers and funded only by the vendors at the event, he gave them a pretty good break on the price. The next year they hired him again, and he gave them the same price break.
But the third year was a little different. The local group decided to try to save some money, and shopped around until they found an out-of-towner (let’s call him Shawn) cheaper than my friend, so they hired him.
Soon Shawn realized he didn’t know what kind of equipment he needed for the event, so he called the locals back. They didn’t have any idea what he needed, so they directed him to someone they knew did–Bret.
I’m all for saving money (see my thesis statement above). But if your organization exists to funnel business to your town, and you take your business outside of town, then you are really refuting the reason you even exist.
If it seems odd to you for a be-loyal-buy-local group to direct an out-of-towner to ask for help from the in-towner he undercut to replace him, then you, Bret, and I have something in common.
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