Another holiday season has come to C-Town and we urge locals to Shop Local This Christmas.
Part of our mission is to make sure local ma and pop, brick and mortar businesses stay in business. It’s in the community’s best interest to support local business. Mega internet business Amazon is building a 1-million square foot “fulfillment center” not too far away, in Livonia. They also plan on creating a smaller center in Romulus and already operates a sorting center downriver, in Brownstown Township.
What does this mean, locally? It means it will be even easier and cheaper to buy stuff from our new regional neighbor, Amazon, versus driving five or ten minutes to your local stuff provider. This means it will be much harder for your local businesswomen and men to make a living. For school taxes residents pay six mils; your brick and mortar local businesses pay 18 mils — the maximum allowed by state law. Should your local “Main Street” businesses go away, where will Clarkston schools and governments go to shore-up their own operating expenses?
If you are a parent of school-aged kids, have you ever noticed the amount local businesses sponsor little league teams? Take a look at the uniforms. Do you ever wonder how many youth groups, both school sanctioned and not, there are in this community? How many service organizations are in town? Where do all these groups go for donations and support?
Do they call the internet businesses? How much has Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat given back to your kids and community? Consider doing more shopping and buying of local goods and services versus out-of-community buying. –– dpr