Shopping Out of Town May Cost You More

By Dennis Pearson

November 5, 2004

In this day and age of tight budgets and constant cost increases that seem to overwhelm any wage increases, it is easy to get caught up in the advertising hype from large chain stores and to find yourself as one of the consumers leaving the local home town to purchase goods and services. Recent information indicates, however, that the consumer that leaves town to shop is likely paying a lot more for products purchased at a "savings" out of town than is realized.

The obvious upfront cost of leaving town to shop is the cost of gasoline. Steadily rising gasoline costs have increased the needed percent of "savings" gained by shopping out of town dramatically. Current estimates are that a consumer that drives 30-50 miles to get a bargain must save 22-25% over what the cost of that same item would be at a hometown store just to break even, let alone save any money! When the value of personal time and vehicle wear is factored in, the percentage of needed savings when buying out of town is even higher.

Another cost to local consumers for shopping out of town is the sales tax revenue lost by their local community. Every dollar spent out of town in another community helps that community maintain their streets, operate their water and sewer systems, build new parks and employ additional people. These are tax dollars that could be generated at home and provide a local benefit but instead are benefiting some other location.

Perhaps one of the largest costs potentially associated with shopping out of town is the possibility of de-valuing personal investments. Consumers that fail to support local businesses and then find one or more of those businesses closing its doors will likely find their home or property decreasing in value dramatically. This effect is compounded in communities where there are only a few retail businesses. If a community has only a few businesses and any one of those businesses should close, home and property values will likely decrease by 30-40% literally overnight.

The Eads Chamber of Commerce urges all citizens of Kiowa County to support our local businesses and to remember that a trip out of town to shop is likely costing us a lot more than we realize.