While I understand the idea behind Shop Local (and support it), I think the saying has some flaws.
- There are many small online merchants that are part of your local community. By shopping local, you are not supporting them. And if everyone follows this mentality they would go out of business.
- Not all items are available local and thinking so is naive.
- Retail is changing and not embracing that fact just because you want to support local will in turn hurt local businesses with a false sense of things are not changing.
Local retail will change and initiatives like shop local are just a stop gap between the current landscape and the future shift in retail. Shop local will not save retail, unique experiences with knowledgeable staff that only a physical presence can offer will.
