January 2nd, 2026 |

• Business Entities
• General

By Attorney Al Spiegel

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Now that another holiday shopping season has passed, an alarming trend is becoming more and more prevalent among believers. Often for misguided reasons, believers are increasingly likely to patronize large corporations than they are to give their business to local merchants. This reflects three misconceptions and ignores three benefits of doing business with our neighbors.

Misconception Number 1: “Local people don’t need to know my business.”

Many of us feel safer and more under the radar when we do business with far-away corporations as opposed to local merchants. We don’t see a human being looking at our purchases, so we feel our purchases are anonymous. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. While local merchants generally appreciate your business and protect your information, online and large corporate merchants routinely sell your data so that it is not only available, but also used to market to you for years to come.

Misconception Number 2: “Local stores don’t have what I need.”

It is certainly impossible for a local, brick-and-mortar store to compete with an online warehouse when the desired trinket is rare, and that may indeed be an appropriate use of the online store. The problem arises, however, when customers take all of their business, including the purchase of items that are available in the local store, and give it to the online warehouse. Further, if people will buy items from local stores, those local stores are very likely to stock them.

Misconception Number 3: “It’s so much easier to shop online.”

As believers, we are not to make decisions on comfort and ease; we are to make decisions in line with the Word of God. In John 13:34-35, Jesus tell us, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Who is encouraged when we shop at a local store? Who in our community could use our reflection of the love of Jesus?

Benefit Number 1: Shopping Local Supports Local Jobs

Patronizing local businesses not only provides us with the benefits of community and movement that are vital to our spiritual and physical health, but it also ensures that local businesses can employ our neighbors. Local businesses that are not controlled by distant boards of directors and overseas interests that serve causes we would cringe even to discuss. Those businesses then put money back into our communities, keeping a critical cycle spinning for another generation.

Benefit Number 2: Shopping Local Controls Prices

When one large merchant is the only place for people to buy a certain product, that large merchant can price that product however it wishes. It doesn’t have to worry about people complaining to it because it’s not a human. Local businesses hold large merchants in check with capitalistic competition, an essential part of a healthy economy.

Benefit Number 3: Shopping Local Creates Connections

When local churches or charitable organizations raise funds for projects or activities, the first people in the community they approach are small business owners. They know those owners care about the community and want good things for it. If those businesses cease to exist, that pool of assets available to pour back into the community will shift to a boardroom far away and will never come back to the community where it belongs.

While many of the points in this article do not have much to do with the practice of law, my work for my clients involves protecting them, their families and their communities. As believers, this transfer of business from local companies to multinational ones threatens that protection and the well-being of our communities, and we need to be willing to do a little extra work to preserve the underappreciated backbone of our economy and culture: local small businesses.

So, the next time you have a purchase to make, call a local business first and give them a chance. Make the online giants the last resort instead of the only one.