Tara’s Takes
This weekend I followed the news on the tragic plane crash in Brooklyn Park. While I didn’t know who was involved, the photos and videos were substantial and occuring in the Cities made it feel close to home. At that time, I had no idea how close to home it really was. However, no matter who was involved, it was a breaking Minnesota news story.
I was following the story on several avenues, one of them being the Star Tribune Facebook site. On their site, they had a link to the story as it developed. Of course, when you clicked on the story, you needed to be a subscriber to read the story. Here’s where my blood started to boil. Several people were commenting on the post that they wanted the information but didn’t want to pay for it. This is a never-ending problem in journalism.
To run a good business, it costs money. Everyone has bills to pay. We would never think of walking into the grocery store and taking a carton of eggs because we want to make breakfast and don’t want to pay. We wouldn’t think of walking into Midwest Supply and taking a rake to do our yard work without paying because we only plan on using it once. We all know that is stealing.
The same goes for journalism. The product produced by reporters is just that — the reports. Reporters are doing a job and providing a service, just like a mechanic does. You have your car serviced, you pay for labor. When you read a news story, you are paying for the labor of covering the story, writing the story, printing or broadcasting the story. All of these are costs associated with journalism.
There isn’t a business that can run for free. We need to treat all businesses like that — if we want them, we need to support them.
Do you appreciate and enjoy having a local grocery store? If so, you need to shop there more than just that gallon of milk.
Do you enjoy having restaurants in town for the nights you don’t want to cook? Then we need to support them so they can stay here. This goes for every business, from the hardware store to the newspaper and everything in between.
More and more we hear about the accelerating cost of living. We are in uncertain times. But that means we need to show support to the local businesses that make our towns run.
I can give you a simple example. I need groceries but I’m complaining that the groceries are more expensive here. So I drive to Marshall and spend $100 on groceries. While there, of course I need coffee, so I stop by Starbucks and drop another $10 on my vanilla chia latte. While in town, I swing into Menards to pick up some things for a backyard project leaving $100 of my hard-earned money with them. By then, I’m hungry and need to hit up one of the fast food joints in town for lunch on my way home because these errands have taken me all morning. There goes another $15. In this scenario I have now spent $225 plus gas all at businesses that are not supporting the local organizations in Tracy that I care about. I’ve also spent more time and gas to get there.
Now, if I ran those same errands in Tracy, I may have spent a little more on my groceries and backyard supplies. However, some items I know are less expensive here or the same price. I also am very aware of the cost of a sub meal at Subway. I have three kids who love Subway. And I know how much a coffee at Squatch is. Those costs would be about the same. So even if it costs be 15% more on my other items, I have now spent $255. But I have spent it all locally. I have supported the businesses that I see supporting the local teams. I am supporting the businesses that will be open when the Minnesota weather stinks and I want to stay in town. And I also didn’t take as much time or have the fuel costs.
Yes, we all need a day or two away. I’m not saying we can never shop out of town. What I do want to point out is if you value something, you need to be willing to pay for it. If you want the news, you need to purchase the story. If you want local businesses, you need to support them. We all know the huge benefits our living in our small community. Let’s make sure all those benefits continue by supporting local.
Speaking of support, this week we marked six years of owning the Tracy Area Headlight Herald. Some things have gone as we planned and some have very much not. However, we are very, very blessed with the support we have received from Tracy and the surrounding area. It seems crazy that kids graduating this year were just entering high school when we purchased the paper.
We have literally watched them grow up through our coverage. This business gives us a rare and unique opportunity to work with so many in the community. We are very thankful for that and we look forward to serving the area for many years to come.
