The RTL Blog

My earlier blog dealt with something to do in small towns, and I briefly touched on supporting the small-town business, so this outing let’s investigate that business support a little bit more.

Every small community has a variety of businesses – if they’re lucky enough to have those - that face an uphill battle every day they open their door. Why? Well think about it for a second, online shopping has exploded in the last number of years, fed mostly from us being cooped up inside due to the covid pandemic. This has led to the lazy approach to shopping, and I’ll admit, I do it a lot to. For me, its finding something that is usually not available at my local small-town store. But, I will buy on occasion from my hometown grocery store because if I don’t, well, how long will they be able to stick around then? And that’s something we should all be concerned about. Most towns don’t have the luxury of a local grocery store, or gas station, or even a school! If you happen to have a few of these kinds of businesses, then by all means at least try to make an effort to set foot inside the door and spend a few dollars to support local. I’ve talked with a number of small town business owners in the last few years who often remark about the lack of support from the hometown residents. So, I asked the question: “Why is that?” Surprisingly the answer I most often get in reply is, “Jealousy”. Now that caught my interest, and I had to ask “Jealousy? How do you mean?” The response: The local person doesn’t want to help out their neighbor/hometown business owner because that would mean they might be doing better than they are. If that business donates to an event in the community, then the support even gets worse because the thought of the hometown resident becomes ‘Well they must be pretty well off then’.

Now that really stunned me, but then I had to sit back and think, you know, that makes sense. Let me put it to you this way – You and your best friend each buy a lottery ticket. You don’t win squat, but your friend ends up winning some big payday – What is your initial reaction? I guarantee it isn’t ‘Wow that’s awesome!’ – It’s more like, ‘Why the hell did he/she win and not me??’. This train of thought is predominant when it comes to someone near you who does well - so instead of us supporting that person our knee jerk reaction is to do the exact opposite. This is the biggest problem each small town business faces. This isn’t the issue everywhere, but it is definitely in the top 5.

If we can get by this ‘jealousy’ thing we all have, then perhaps our small-town business might be around a lot longer than they otherwise might be. I think each small town business owner has a lot of courage to take the risk to set up shop in a small community, we owe them at the very least, our support for showing that courage.

On a sidebar, social media can be a helpful tool to promote your small-town business and draw in a whole new clientele. Especially now that people are back into the travelling mode. This can really open up a lot of doors and bring awareness to a business that might not otherwise get the attention it deserves. Some businesses have marketed themselves beautifully and have become not only a staple of their community, but a ‘destination’ place for travelers who have heard about the business. There are successful small-town businesses scattered all over the place in small towns with that star studded reputation that has made them stand out among the crowd.

If you happen to see something that catches your eye online and it’s in a town of 400 people, and you go “Seriously? In a small town?” Look at it from a different perspective, it’s not the location that matters, but the business itself that is worth the trek. You might just discover one of these hidden gems on your own one day and then you can have those bragging rights about discovering that ‘awesome restaurant’ or ‘Bookstore’ or whatever it may be. Now isn’t that a lot better than being jealous?

New stories wander in every couple of weeks. Older bloggys move into the archive below.