It seems multinationals are often the default way to shop, with local or independent businesses the ones to opt in to on occasion, offering a feelgood factor for doing so. We suggest that is the wrong way round: instead, when we don’t shop with independents, we are in fact actively opting out of doing so - we are opting IN to supporting a multinational business with no connection to our communities.
How did the narrative, as well as our hard earned cash, get diverted in this way? How did the the passive experience become the one where we support multinationals instead of those we know and meet daily, who know us and respect us and ask us how our dog’s operation went?
We’ve heard a lot these last few months about supporting local businesses. So how about we consider local, independent businesses as our default? The local businesses are the ones who could create livelihoods in our localities, offering caring, personalised, professional services in the communities they also live and work in.
Currently, we opt in to local businesses, with the default being multinationals. Let’s instead consider how we are opting out of local when we shop with a multinational. When we change the narrative this way, saying we are opting out of local and into Amazon, the feel good factor disappears. So let’s change our thinking, from one driven by those multinationals, to one driven by our communities and the businesses and enterprises within them instead.
Thoughts on the back of a postcard to us here at Re!
And here’s a random picture of Mr Wonderful Flower Man - the ultimate shop local florist on Dal Lake, Kashmir, as he’s heading to work at dawn.