Q & A Archives
These are Questions & Answers posed by ordinary people looking for guidance. Dr. Judy Baus has thoughtfully answered each person and feels that these responses just might help someone else in their time of need.
To submit question please feel free to click here.
01/11/2009 02:58 PM
Dear Judy,
There’s another discount chain store going in not far from the super Wal-Mart in our small city. I’ve lived in this place long enough to know the shopkeepers on our block. They’re actually friends of our family, but some of them aren’t sure they’ll be able to keep their doors open even another year. They say those big chain stores are running them out of business.
I’ll admit I’m tempted to go to the chain stores for my goods including groceries because it’s usually cheaper, but so far I haven’t gone to them because it makes me angry that they are putting the little guys out of business. So far my family and I agree to shop in local stores, not the impersonal chains where everything benefits one country and it’s not the U.S.A. But on the other hand, it’s getting tougher and tougher to make ends meet. I feel torn over this small but important matter. Do you have any suggestions?
-Shopping Pickle
Dear Pickle,
For the past 15 years, my husband and have traveled the U.S.A. and we’ve driven through many small towns that are beginning to look very much alike. Small businesses have shut down leaving empty buildings. I’ve been thinking about why the businesses closed down. I see two things happening. One, the townspeople go outside of town or to the big chain stores to shop. Two, the small merchants raise their prices so high that the people must go outside of town or to the chain stores to shop.
I can understand both sides of this problem, the consumer and the merchant. I went to the Bible that has answers to every problem. Jesus said in John 15:12: “This is My commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.” He goes on to say in verse 13, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” Whether or not you are a Christian, following Jesus’ words will make you successful in this life. Love is the bottom line. Not greed. It takes working together to make a community a healthy, growing, prosperous place to live.
Take a few minutes to think about where you live and how you can make it a better place. Ask yourself how you can help your community grow and become a healthy, prosperous environment to live in. When we call it MY community then we must take responsibility before God for what happens to it. We all have our part to do for growth, health, and prosperity to come to our community, town or city.
To the merchants I say keep your prices where the people can and will want to bring their business to you. Some of the consumers are your friends and family. Love them enough to help them keep bringing their business your way.
To the consumer I say when at all possible do your business in your neighborhood Mom and Pop shops, not in the big chain stores. Understand that small businesses will not have the huge selections and they may even need to charge a little more. It is better to pay a little more now than not have a store to go to at all in the future. Remember that the people who own the stores in your community are your friends, and out of love you want to see them succeed. Success of a business can only happen when we spend our money in that store. Purpose in your heart that you will ONLY go out of town or to chain stores to shop when the stores in your town do not have the item and cannot order it.
The bottom line is we all want to see the businesses in our community do well, but this will take both the merchant and the consumer working together with the love of God in their hearts to help one another succeed. This 2009 I challenge you to add love to your life by thinking of ways to help your community grow and become prosperous and healthy.