{"id":712,"date":"2006-06-22T16:04:00","date_gmt":"2006-06-22T20:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example.org\/why_buy_locally_1"},"modified":"2006-06-22T16:04:00","modified_gmt":"2006-06-22T20:04:00","slug":"why_buy_locally_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/?p=712","title":{"rendered":"Why buy locally, when you can get things cheaper from overseas?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s<br \/>\nreally simple. When you buy directly from an artisan or from a farmer,<br \/>\nthere is a sense of connection that matters. If the artisan and farmer<br \/>\nhave pride in their work, you take part in a transaction that validates<br \/>\nthe quality of the goods you have purchased and you have obtained<br \/>\nsomething you are proud to take home.<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-body\">\n<p>You are not just buying a cup, a jug, or a head of lettuce. You are<br \/>\nbuying the careful effort that went into producing what you just<br \/>\nbought. Afterward, you will find yourself telling others about your<br \/>\npurchase and sharing your joy at finding something that was just right<br \/>\nfor you.<\/p>\n<p>You have made a connection between yourself and another human being with a meaningful transaction. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-more\">\n<p>You get something you need and the other person gets income and is<br \/>\nencouraged to produce more things for you to appreciate and buy.<\/p>\n<p>The downside of buying locally, when it occurs, is that you may buy<br \/>\nsomething from someone who has no pride in their work or in the service<br \/>\nthey provide. You can find this in fast food franchises, but you can<br \/>\nalso find this in small town merchants and businesspeople who have long<br \/>\nsince stopped viewing customers as new friends.<\/p>\n<p>When you only get inferior goods or services locally, it is quite<br \/>\neasy to turn to the Internet and get excellent products at highly<br \/>\ncompetitive prices. The downside to Internet shopping is that you don&#8217;t<br \/>\nalways get the personal touch and great service you want.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, there are lots of great small merchants who have<br \/>\ncoupled their jelly-making, or craft work to the Internet and they do<br \/>\nvery well when they bring the same downhome touch to their online<br \/>\nbusiness as they do to their local customers.<\/p>\n<p>So, what is the bottom line here? If you are an artisan or a small<br \/>\nbusiness owner and view every transaction as a chance to touch someones<br \/>\nlife in a meaningful manner, you will have a growing number of people<br \/>\nwho want to tell others about the extraordinary effect you have had on<br \/>\ntheir lives.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t care what you are selling, when you can create rewarding<br \/>\ntransactions in a natural and relaxed way, you will never lack for<br \/>\nbusiness. The easiest way to ensure you stay on track is to provide<br \/>\ngreat products or services that people need and want.<\/p>\n<p>Figuring out how to do that is what marketing is all about. I will probably write about that in another post. <\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s really simple. When you buy directly from an artisan or from a farmer, there is a sense of connection that matters. If the artisan and farmer have pride in their work, you take part in a transaction that validates &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/?p=712\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1804],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3R4iK-bu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}