Many things in todays day and age ride a fine line of good or bad. Many people like to say that there isn't a gray area but I dont agree. Think about life and death, both are needed to keep the world balanced. Night and day, to much or to.little of either would completely change the way we live our lives. Rain and sunshine, we need both in order to keep our crops healthy and provide the world with foods. Analogy and getting to the point..........okay I can stop with re analogies now! But you get the point, balance is a necessity.
Where has the balance between small and corporate businesses gone and what will happen if it isn't restored? If your reading this you know that todays technology compared to about 15 years ago is almost unbelievable. On the past 15 years people have completley changed they're lifestyle because of the internet. Life is fast and instantaneous now days and me and you don't have time for....well, finding stuff. Everyting we care about comes to us. 15 years ago you would probaly ring your freinds land line phone WHEN he got home from work and ask him if he was going to make the football game Monday night, and how was work, and if he got to work safely after that snow storm, and.......and.......and.......!!!! We had a lot to talk about and we had to wait! So if you thought of calling him at 10:00 a.m and he was already at work but didn't get off until 5 plus 15 minutes to drive home....well you get it. The point is that gratification was put on hold because we didn't have technology that allowed us to comunicate multiple ways at any point in time. Let's take that example and apply it to current times. Every single one of those questions above would have instantly sent us into a quest to find the answer. You would have texted him and if he didn't get back to you within about 2 minutes you would pull up your facebook app and send him a message and check to see who has accepted your invite to the monday football night. We need that instant satisfaction! Well what does that have to do with small businesses? Everything! Small businesses still rely on forms of advertising that is obsolete to my generation. Newspapers and local radio stations are great ways to advertise if people are reading or listening to them. But ill tell you right now that I have not read or bought a newspaper or even seen anyone I know with a newspaper in a very very very long time. I have internet and satellite radio to listen to commercial free unless im listening to my Mp3 player on my phone which happens to be my source of news, internet, socializing, and finding products. So if the demographic that these businesses is advertising to is getting older and getting smaller every minute while the corporations are advertising to a growing demographic you have........Yes! An off set in balance. So what.....how does this matter? Well to be honest I can't tell you exactley what will happen but judging by my observation of nearly everything on existence of , balance is essential. And what has happen already is that small businesses can't provide competitive pricing for consumers or competitive wages for employees. And as small businesses are dropping off everyday while CEO's are cruising around in yachts the balance is headed full speed towards a point of no return.
Now before you go out and quit your corporate job and burn down the food franchise down the road understand that im seeking a balance. That means that corporations are not bad but rather good.....to good. Some people want a 9-5 corporate job with great pay and no appreciation but some people like me want to work hard for a business just to hear your boss say "good job". They do provide local jobs and they do provide convenient ways to get the products you love. America needs corporations but small businesses are American. This is America and whether you love , hate or don't care about America the truth is that we all need more people to shop at local stores to keep money in the community and out of the pockets of the guys up top. The only way to do this is to buy local!
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