A few years ago, back when I was a reluctant member of the board of the Edgewater Community Council, a study was done on local versus national/international retail. The purpose was to determine whether or not the ECC, and elected officials, should support national retailers moving into our neighborhood. I don’t remember figures and sources and all that good researcher stuff now, but I do recall that locally-owned retail was deemed “better” than national or international retail. The reasoning was that MUCH more money (something like 3x the amount – like I said, I don’t remember figures but I do remember that the disparity was HUGE) stays in the community with locally owned retail versus nationally/internationally owned retail. There were also statistics showing how locally-owned businesses tend to hire neighborhood residents and offer them better wages, working conditions and learning and growing opportunities.
The study resonated with me. In terms of Shannon the American Consumer… I really struggle. Since reading the study, I have made a point to shop at a family-owned grocery store. The downside to that is most of the produce is not locally grown. (Although, a new grocery store opened up a few blocks away, and I’m pretty sure they focus on local products, so I’m going to check it out, and during the summer I buy all my produce from farmer’s markets.) Also, I shop at thrift stores and rummage sales for most of my “stuff” because I believe in the saying, “one man’s trash…” I’m not proud.
I don’t own a car because I don’t want to support terrorism and BP POLLUTING LAKE MICHIGAN THOSE BASTARDS, although I know that if I should ever have children, I will buy a reasonable, used car. I rarely shop at Target, and I never shop at Wal-Mart. I avoid the national chains, for the most part. I haven’t bought coffee since I realized how little we sent to Haiti, but I’d pretty much given up that addiction (because Starbucks coffee is an addiction separate and above caffeine addiction) long ago.
And I save money. Because the local grocery store and rummage sales are cheaper than Target et. al., I don’t spend nearly as much. But then I read the Huffington Post’s thought-provoking article on choosing local or community banks. I’d been looking into a credit union recently, but with no real intention of changing. (I have a savings and checking account at a local bank and then a Citibank checking account because I want frequent flier miles.) The author does an excellent job of showing how supporting community banks is actually supporting communities. I think Obama agrees – in his State of the Union address, he mentioned that there will be funds made available to community banks to loan to small businesses. The big banks just won’t.
So I think this will be my next step: Leaving Citibank. I’ll miss the frequent flier miles (I’m a total frequent flier mile whore, I’m not even kidding), but I just can’t bring myself to support them anymore, you know? What have they done for me? Yes, I’ve earned a tasty sum in miles, but that’s about it. And they have done nothing – NOTHING – that I know of for my community. In fact, when it was time for me to get a mortgage, and to refinance my mortgage, I went to my local bank. And now that I’m considering other stuff, like financial planning and what not, I think its time to get into a credit union. One that is local and provides more services than walk up tellers, frequent flier miles and a whole host of fees.
I guess it all boils down to my life goal. The one greatest, overarching goal I have for my life is to live my life well. Every breath I take is an ethical and moral decision. Where I shop, what I buy, how much I shop and how much I buy, how I transport myself from A to B, where I work and what I do… it’s overwhelming. Not all of my choices are good ones, sometimes I have to choose wrongly just so that I – me personally – can feel safe and survive – and I have a lot of compromising I have to do on a daily basis. But banking? That’s easy. It’s sad that Citibank has forgotten that I am a customer, that I am more than a source of revenue. Maybe if the Community Banking Initiative really takes hold, then the larger banks will wake up and recognize that they are nothing more than leeches, vultures.
And one unrelated thing: The curser and my typing is driving Hooghly nuts. She can’t seem to understand that no, you can’t eat/kill/maim the computer. Silly goose.
I used to use our credit union but they f’ed up so many transactions, I had to switch. Also, all transactions, except ATM withdrawls, had to be done through the mail. But, I switched to local banks, and have been very happy with them. If you still want to get your miles, you could use a citibank credit card for your transactions and pay from your local bank checking account. Best of both worlds, maybe?
Yes, I used to have an AAdvantage credit card. However, the fees were too much for me (and I’m really displeased with the fees for my AAdvantage debit card), and I don’t believe in credit cards so I cancelled the cc years ago. I’m considering a cc from a credit union, though, for emergencies (which I’m sure will happen if I have kids), as the fees and interest rates are lower with credit union cc’s.
I love banking with a credit union. I think you will be very satisfied switching to one.