"Shop Local" - when it works

I write this not as a local business owner, but as a member of the community. I understand in my business that people don't always hire locally. There are a lot of reasons why, most of which are irrelevant to this. So I write this as a member of the local community.

I see a lot of signs in Elk Grove about "Shop Local." But when push comes to shove, do we really support local businesses, events, charities? Sadly, I think the answer is no. Its a lot of talk with not a lot of action.

How many of us bank at Wells Fargo or Bank of America or Chase or, well, you get the idea? Probably most of us. That explains why there are three Wells branches on Laguna/Bond alone. Of course, now, you can bank online with Ally or Paypal or any one of a number of other banks. Yet, we have several local banks that people drive past to get to their banks. If you really wanted to shop locally, wouldn't you bank locally too? Isn't banking part of shopping?

But it goes beyond this. When the city council voted to try to bring Major League Soccer to Elk Grove, did they vote to work with someone local? No. They went with "big city" folks with no connection to Elk Grove. I guess Fabian Nunez brings notoriety (not necessarily positve), but what is his connection to Elk Grove? None. In fact, most of the City Council members do not work in Elk Grove. How can they promote "Shop Locally" when they work out of the area? I guess it's possible, but is it intellectually honest to promote local businesses when you choose to do business elsewhere.

I have been around Elk Grove long enough to know that there are plenty of people willing to talk the talk. But when do we walk the walk? I have now tried two fundraisers in Elk Grove. The number of Elk Grove participants was limited to friends and family. The number of folks who came from out of Elk Grove dwarfed the people from Elk Grove by about 20 to 1  - and that included counting my family. Where is the shop local, support local then? It is non-existant.

It is great that we all talk about shopping locally. However, when push comes to shove, most of us don't walk the walk. We give in to whatever pressures are there, be it financial, ease, etc... and we skip the local businesses. Elk Grove will only get better when all of us, including the city council, stop giving lip service to shop local and start actually doing it. (And that means the City Council should end its arrangement with out of towners who don't care about Elk Grove.)