The limitless benefits of shopping local

 If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a million times. “Shop local!” 

Coming from the big city, it really wasn’t something that was ever really discussed, not quite the same issue it is in a small town. But since moving to Perkins County, I’ve learned the real value of shopping local. 

It’s something that really has stuck with me and something I really try to keep in the forefront of my mind. 

SHOP LOCAL! 

All these years I have thought of keeping our money in the county, and supporting our local businesses, and contributing to the sales tax here in Perkins County and the benefits of keeping that money right here in our own community. 

I get it. Shop local. For the good of our community all around. 

But this last week I found a new lesson to be learned that circles back to that old familiar phrase.... shop local. 

As it turns out. It can sometimes benefit you directly in quite an unexpected way. 

We’ve had an extra vehicle hanging out, not being used because... well it’s an extra vehicle and upon trying to start it awhile back with no luck, it quickly got put on the back burner. We assumed it was the battery, but never did much about it and we were in no hurry to go out and spend the money on the extra vehicle. (Yeah that’s kinda lazy, I know, don’t judge me!) 

So there it sat. And sat. And sat. 

Until one day last week I got a wild hair and up and decided I was gonna get that sucker running! 

I took a quick break from work and headed over to the car parts store right across the street from the office. 

Upon entering, I immediately started laughing and joking with Mike and Bob about what I might be doing in there... 

Jokes aside, they were extremely helpful, got me my battery, and Bob even INSISTED on carrying it back across the street for me. Talk about service! 

(They would have even changed the battery for me had I been able to get the Jeep to the store, I might add.) 

After work that day, I was excited to get the battery home and get it changed out, something I haven’t ever actually done by the way. 

(I just knew my husband was gonna be SO PROUD of me for completing this task that we had been putting off for eternity, and all by myself no less.... GIRL POWER!) 

Much to my surprise, I did it. I got the battery changed! Charlie did show up right as I was finishing up, which I was very thankful for because, if I’m being honest, I was really hesitant when it came time to actually tighten the wires/ connectors on the battery. I could just see myself getting zapped.... 

But I didn’t have to, thanks to his impeccable timing. 

We closed the hood, she started right up, and of course we wanted to hop in and go for a ride. 

First place we went was to take the old battery back to NAPA, as Bob had explained that bringing the old battery in made the new one a bit cheaper and they’d give me a bit of refund. (A concept I still don’t completely understand but if it meant getting a bit of money back I wasn’t questioning it.)

We took the battery in and when Bob took a look at the old battery, he took the extra time to look back in their records and lo and behold, it was actually still under warranty! Thus saving us a pretty decent chunk of change! 

I love nice little surprises like this. And this one would have absolutely NEVER happened, if it wasn’t for SHOPPING LOCAL! 

I have not done any actual research to back this up, but I am pretty confident that I probably could have purchased these exact batteries a bit cheaper in a big-box store somewhere. 

But I am VERY confident in saying, had I done so, I wouldn’t have received the above and beyond service with the smile (and jokes) I received right here in town. 

And I’m even more confident that a big-box store would not have gone through the trouble of double checking our warranty that we wouldn’t have thought of otherwise to save us a couple bucks. 

This experience has given a whole new perspective on the whole “shop local” concept for me. 

Thanks to the guys over at NAPA for their outstanding customer service, and beyond that, driving the importance of shopping local even further into my heart. 

Buying car parts isn’t something I would have ever considered “fun,” or “delightful,” but this experience was just that, and only because I was shopping local. 

Our friendly little town and the ability to shop here, support each other and build these relationships with our neighbors, friends and peers really is something special.