As the economy worsens and people tighten their belts even more, it becomes more important for people to support their own communities by shopping local. I know that there is a tendency for people to shop near where they work, and that often means that they are not shopping local to where they live. That is one of the problems in today’s work world, so many people commute such a long distance that they find it almost impossible to shop in the communities in which they live; their home base truly is simply a bedroom community – a place to sleep. One of the reasons for that is that often the local businesses don’t pay decent wages so most of the residents drive further to get higher pay. However, with the price of commuting going up because of the skyrocketing fuels prices, it may soon be the case that commuting is no longer paying the benefit because the higher pay is being negated by the cost of commuting.
If more people shopped local to where they lived, perhaps that would give the businesses more income to invest in the community and give them they ability to increase their wage scale. Shopping local is a good idea if it prevents you from driving long distances just to save a dollar or two on the price of an item.