Back in 1970, my little county celebrated it's 200th birthday. It precedes the creation of the United States, you see, and is quite old. At one time it was the wild west.
The folks who celebrated back then put out a little magazine about the county's birthday. It was supported by ads. Loads of them in the back, all looking the same. Big black letters in a box, with the name of the business.
Local businesses. About 100 of them.
Today, we are working on a magazine to celebrate the county's 250th birthday next year. And the ad sales?
Well, McDonalds, Walmart, Cracker Barrel, Applebee's, etc. don't want to support the locality in which they have a business. Neither do the hotel chains, or anything corporate with a headquarters elsewhere. Or the big supermarkets. No local marketing budgets, no little coffer of coins with which to support any local endeavors.
No reason to support their county.
Nope. These companies do not give back to the communities. They don't support little league teams, or offer up door prizes for school functions, or do any of that stuff, at least, not on a regular basis. Walmart used to give money to the schools some years ago but I think that stopped.
Profits have to go to the stockholders, after all.
I find this a very distressing and sad state of affairs.
I'm guilty, though, because while I do shop locally when I can I also don't hesitate to go into the supermarket or buy off of Amazon.
However, there is no reason other than greed for large corporations not to have small marketing monies available to franchises or stores all over the nation. Why can't the big hotel chain at Exit 150 support local things?
Yup.
ReplyDeleteBloomberg has an article about it... "Boeing's 737 Max Software Outsourced to $9-an-Hour Engineers"
I hadn't thought about the big corporations and their support of the local community. But I do hate the homogenization of America. You can fly to any city anywhere in the country for a meeting, and never see the area because you stay at a chain hotel near the airport and eat at a chain restaurant and read USA Today. With freeways, you don't go through small towns any more, but only see the large strip malls. Yet, I shop Amazon because (a)a there is no clothing store in town that sells anything in my sizes and (b) the parking rules in town are so strict that you can't, for example, meet a friend for lunch and then go to a movie because you can't park that long!
ReplyDeleteIt is sad! I am a small home business ran by a larger company and I love that Pink Zebra encourages us to give to our community!
ReplyDeleteWhile I, as a small business do my best to support the local ball teams and local activities, eventually I have to say "No" to someone and that causes people to get upset, because I "helped" the other people and refuse to help them. Then it becomes an issue moving forward with the next person or request because the answer is still a "No.". It's a never ending circle. When word gets out I have sponsored something, my office becomes a revolving door of charity seekers wanting me to sponsor them. While it may very well be about the shareholders, there is also the "Treat everyone Equal" scene and by helping one you are expected to help All. It's really a catch 2 for me as I am a giving type person.
ReplyDelete