Small, locally owned businesses provide economic diversity and stability. A town of 10,000 might support 50 to 60 small merchants, but when a large corporate retailer moves in, the host community as well as several smaller towns in the vicinity often lose their Main Street merchants altogether, leaving many of the region’s residents little option but to travel long distances for even the most basic of daily necessities. This dependency carries risks. While local merchants will do their best to weather economic hard times, absentee owners are far more mobile and will abandon a community if profit margins do not meet their expectations.
Stacy Mitchell
The Home Town Advantage
