PEN-L message, small v. big business

Patronize Small Businesses Week
August 22nd to August 28th

The Nader/Camejo Campaign is designating next week "Patronize Small Businesses Week." Small businesses are a core of our community. Unlike multi-nationals, small businesses won't leave the community for cheaper labor in a far-off dictatorship-they stay loyal to the community, build relationships, and help us grow together. So, we are urging Nader/Camejo supporters and everyone else to patronize their community shops.

While you are visiting your local businesses, note the personal service and attention, converse about the community, and reflect on how important it is that those businesses are there-to provide you with the necessities of life. Visit your local hardware stores, pharmacies, clothing boutiques, bookstores, bakeries, restaurants, or independent music stores.

Reflect on how the "Big Box" stores like Wal-Mart and fast-food chains like McDonald's actually do more harm than good to the local economy. A research study in Lake Placid, NY found that for every job created by Wal-Mart, one-and-a-half jobs were lost-due to the large number of jobs that Wal-Mart takes through closure of small businesses and their distributors.

Consider research in Austin, TX, finding that for each dollar spent at two locally owned book and music stores, more than three times the local economic activity of dollars was created than for every dollar spent at a typical big chain bookstore.

How is it that local businesses help the economy grow, while chains and Big Boxes undermine the economy?

   1. Local businesses have larger payrolls, employing their own ad writers, buyers, accountants, and other employees that chains centralize in a single headquarters.
   2. Locally-owned businesses make more of their own purchases locally.
   3. More of the profit made by a locally-owned business re-circulates within the community through purchases from other businesses and donations to local causes.
   4. Big Box retailers, shopping centers, and fast-food restaurants cost taxpayers more than they pay for-higher road maintenance costs and greater demand for public safety services (especially police calls for commercial crime).
   5. Big Boxes and national chains get more subsidies, tax abatements, and tax holidays through corporate welfare handouts from government. Small businesses, by contrast, pay their fair share of taxes.

The Nader/Camejo Campaign urges you to make purchases in local stores, help the economy grow, and take part in the heart of your community.
Coming Soon!-The Truth About Wal-Mart.