Changing Times (A New Way of thinking)

We are in a very unusual time with the Covid-19 pandemic.  Our way of thinking and re-acting seemed to change overnight. It almost felt like we had no warnings that our lives were going to be changed.  We have seen death and suffering.  We have seen the desperation in everyday things.  We can no longer take for granted the simple things such as buying toilet paper.  With all the uncertainty, we might be wondering what we can do to help.
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First and foremost, of course, we need to help family and friends.  After, our family and friends are safe. We can help our community and economy as a whole. 




​The easiest and most effective way is to buy local.  With the changes in social distancing and stay-at-home orders, we have become accustomed to shopping online.  For some of us, this is something totally new.  A new way of thinking so now there are a few things to think about.  It is easy to shop local when we can travel and have the liberty to drive around; the challenge is a little bit more when we are shopping from our home

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 We all know the big box retailers and re-sellers, and they are very easy to buy from. However, there are also a few re-sellers that cater to local and small businesses such as Etsy and eBay.  Buying from these two sites is a great way to help support small businesses in the US.  Many local and US small businesses are turning to these sites because they cannot compete with the big business on other sites. We saw this same trend with big-box retailers moving into neighborhoods and causing the smaller stores to go out-of-business.

Buying locally and from American based companies will help in many ways.  This could help our economy as well as our community.  There is much discussion on “opening” our states to boost the economy.  Our communities are hurting due to many businesses being shut down and many people out of work.  If we each do our little part by buying locally, we can contribute in a positive way to both issues.  If we are not able to actually go to the local store down the street, we can still help our country by buying from sites that promote local business.  Not only will this help our immediate communities, but it will also help our nation as a whole.

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We are all in this together so let’s stay together and help each other in the little ways we can.