The Rural Voice, 2004-11, Page 10g>tceat
Ch>riatm.aa gi(ta
Plowing Match
Special
Antique
Tractors and
Threshing
Machines in
Grey County
A great coffee
table book
Only $45.
Contact Jolley's Toys &
Collectibles - 519-538-3000
Greta Kennedy - 519-369-3119
Grey Roots - 519-376-3690
04
to
Asa
IPM
Music CD
makes great
stocking
siufers
22 selections from
Grey County artists
Only 10.
Contact Greta Kennedy
- 519-369-3119
Grandma Lambes - 519-538-2757
Grey Roots - 519-376-3690
v�rw
• AS4'10-4 AN 31N
• svwts
"Our experience
assures lower cost
water wells"
104 YEARS' EXPERIENCE
Member of Canadian
and Ontario
Water Well Associations
• Farm
• Industrial
• Suburban
• Municipal
Licensed
by the Ministry
of the Environment
DAVIDSON
WELL DRILLING LTD.
WINGHAM
Serving Ontario Since 1900
519-357-1960 WINGHAM
519-664-1424 WATERLOO
6 THE RURAL VOICE
Keith Roulston
Value-added spending
Keith
Roulston is
editor and
publisher of
The Rural
Voice. He
limes near
Blyth, ON.
"Value-added" has been a catch
phrase in recent years, but it's always
applied to adding value when you're
selling a product or service. Ignored,
but just as valid, is adding value
through your purchases.
We're coming up to the biggest
consumer spending spree of the year
and how that money is spent will
shape the future of your community,
your region and your country.
We've been persuaded in the past
decade or so that the only calculation
in our purchases is what's good for
us: in other words, how much we can
get for as little cash as possible. But
when we spend money we buy more
than just an item off a shelf:
sometimes our dollars add value to
our lives in other ways.
An organization I'm involved
with recently held a fund-raising
auction. Every business in town was
called on for an item to be auctioned
off for the cause. Now if, say, 10
businesses are replaced by one large
store in a neighbouring community,
do you think that big store is going to
give 10 gifts? Or, being in another
town with no connection with our
community, would the store manager
give anything at all? And if the
auction is halted for lack of auction
items, is the local local service lost to
the community?
Traditionally our main street
businesses have been a source of
community leadership for local
service clubs, hospital boards and
school boards. When stores stand
empty it's not only a loss of a
business and its tax revenue, it's a
loss of people to take leadership
roles. Even in the lucky regional
centres that survive the big box
phenomenon, the stores are often run
by employees, not owners.
Employees often don't have as strong
a tie to the community as the owner
of a local business does.
And the spinoff from spending
from those local businesses shapes
the community. The newspaper that
ties your community together, for
instance, pays its bills much more
from the advertising placed by local
merchants than the subscription fee
you pay each year. If those merchants
are replaced by large chains, the
advertising is lost because those
stores seldom advertise in the paper.
Farmers and farm groups often
point out how much their spending
contributes to the local community
but that means farmers also have a
responsibility for the effects of their
spending choices. Many years ago I
recall a farm group that had the idea
to tender for group buying of a
particular farm supply. Lost in the
argument for farmers getting the best
deal was what effect this might have
on local suppliers if the idea took off.
Are you further ahead in the long run
if one supplier knocks all his
competition out of the market and
then has a monopoly?
Like big -box shoppers, farmers
have tended to go farther afield in
sear,:h of a deal that will save a little
— especially larger operations. Left
out of this equation is the effect of
not supporting local suppliers. Every
time in recent years there has been a
crisis in agriculture, from the pork
crisis of the late 1990s to the BSE
crisis, local farm -oriented businesses
have been there to do what they could
to support farmers, from paying for
buses for protest marchs to helping to
find alternate markets.
(A confession here, this magazine
also depends on those local farm
suppliers. Without their advertising
support you wouldn't be getting The
Rural Voice or indeed most farm
publications.)
The big chains have done a
marvellous job of convincing people
their only decision is who provides
the shopper with the best variety at
the least price, but the buying
transaction is much more complicated
than that. Spending a little more
might add a lot of value to your
lifestyle, and your community's .0