Shop Local: Recycle your money
One way to give back and help your fellow St. Tammany residents this holiday season is to shop at locally-owned small business establishments.
Dawn S. Brackett, CEO of East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce, said shopping locally not only helps to boost the local sales tax revenue, it also helps to put money back in locals’ pockets.
“What people don’t realize is when you shop locally so many of those dollars stay right here in the community,” she said.
Lou Ann Johnson, president of the Slidell Antique Association and small business owner, re-emphasized that statement.
In her shop, for example, she has items for sale from 11 different dealers. She said that is 11 different local families trying to a make a living by selling antiques. When you buy something from them that is putting money directly in their pockets.
“It’s a domino effect,” she said, because then those dealers can take the money you just paid them and turn around and buy Christmas gifts for their own families.
Brackett said during the holidays, many small businesses hire on extra employees, and when you buy something in their stores, that money is then used to pay those individuals’ salaries. Those individuals then go back into the community and spend those dollars at a local grocery store to buy food and the cycle continues.
