Small Town Businesses: Go or No Go?

I've been contemplating this topic for a while now. Is it something that I dare bring up for fear that I offend someone, or should I say it fearlessly, hoping that someone else feels the same way?

Here goes nothing.


Small town businesses.

Should they be supported? Is it worth spending our money supporting these businesses? Would I be better making the 90 mile trek to Grand Forks for all of my needs?

Here are my thoughts.

1. Should they be supported? Absolutely! How often do you run out of eggs after you have already begun making a cake? Or what about when the light burns out in your kitchen and you don't have any spares left? What happens when you are short 2-2"x4"s for a pole shed, or you have been on empty for the past 20 miles and need to find gas somewhere? Or how about the beef farmers- don't we all like to know where our meat is coming from? No matter the business, we each depend on the other. While most of these are crisis situations, we cannot leave our small businesses to only satisfy our crisis scenarios. Your business keeps the owners bills paid, puts food on the table, and gives their kids opportunities to do great things.

2. Is it worth spending our money supporting these businesses? A comment was made to me recently that one of the stores in our area was "a waste of their money". Um, what? Here's how I see it. You can't be for keeping our school open and against supporting the gas station or pro PodCo and anti T&B Hardware. All of these businesses are part of a cycle. Each of them thrives off of each other and keeps the cycle profitable and flowing efficiently. If you are against one business, then you are kind of against all of them.

3. Would I be better making the 90 mile trek to Grand Forks for all of my needs? Overall, no. Yes, I do make trips to Grand Forks to purchase supplies such as toilet paper, paper towels, clothing detergent, dish washer detergent, etc. in bulk, because we tend to go through large amounts of them. I am not denying or ignoring this, but I truly believe that buying the majority of our products in large stores only fuels the greedy pig. Who reaps the benefits of those purchases? Large companies that could probably care less about what we think or whether or not we spend out money with them is who. I think it's safe to say that small business owners truly care about what we think and whether or not we spend our money in their stores. Yes, prices may be slightly more expensive, but after driving 180 miles round trip, are you really coming out ahead? According to my calculations (at least for most products), no.

Maybe this will upset some of you. Perhaps some of you by some miracle see this situation the same way that I do. Whatever your thoughts and/or opinions, I am writing this in hopes that you will be willing to give small businesses a chance, because without them, what kind of a place would we live in?

Enjoy the warm weather, folks. :)

2016

Well, my follow up from my last post took me a little longer than I expected. Whoops!

Many of you thought that they "big change" that I spoke about was that we were expecting our first child. While you were not entirely incorrect (as this is indeed true) this was not the same idea that I was thinking about. Gotcha. ;)

This year, we are looking at building a shop in order to further our business. As many of you probably already know about this, we purchased a lot along highway 59 in Lancaster and began dirt work for the pad this fall. There is still some more dirt work that needs to happen, but we are so happy and thankful that Glenny was able to get as much done as he did. This means that the project will actually be happening this year. Yay!

While I have been at home for the past couple months finishing up school, managing all of our books and payroll and keeping up with the house work, I have been more than busy. Come May, I will graduate from college, so that will be a wonderful burden lifted off of my shoulders! I am so pumped to be able to finish my bachelor's degree in four years, after transferring, getting married, and working full time with Mark. It gives me such a wonderful, warm, fuzzy feeling inside. :)

Mark is staying busy with outside work still. They are putting up a pole shed for Noel Peterson in Red River township west of Hallock. They have a fun time visiting with Noel every day, but are ready to be out of the cold weather! He has, also, been busy with our local fire department. Him and a couple other guys are planning a fundraiser meal and set up awesome prizes to raffle off that evening. If you are interested in purchasing a ticket or two, they are $10 a piece, and I have some with ready for you to purchase!

Basketball has been in full swing for a while now. My brother Dylan is a senior and my cousin Morgan is a junior. I try to make it to as many of their games as I can each week, as my love for the game has not decreased in the slightest. Last night, my cousin Ellie told me that she prayed for me at Good News club last week. Good News club is a Christian after school club where kids in grades K-6 are welcomed to on Wednesday of every week. I asked Ellie what she prayed for me about, and she said "I prayed for your baby!". I literally wanted to cry. What a sweet, sweet soul that little girl has. I love praying for people, but it really makes me feel special when I hear that people are praying for me and my family. What a blessing family and small towns are!

Today, the guys started doing some work on our house, again. We have not had time to trim out the inside of our windows, as it always seems like there is work to be done elsewhere! I was so stinkin' excited! Gahhhhhh!!!

Stop over sometime. I have cookies in the freezer and coffee or tea ready to roll.

Megan