Local businesses help build community

Dave Ring

September 24th, 2016

The Star Press 

Edited for brevity and updated for content on 12/23/25

We know local businesses are the largest business employers in the country and according to the Small Business Administration, small businesses provide 49.2 percent of all private sector jobs.  We know that local small businesses keep profits in the community.  We’ve all seen the memes and signage that talk about how you’re supporting local families when you patronize a small local business and when you support a chain, profits leave the community.

I also think it’s clear to most that small businesses create the type of character and ambiance that you want on a local Main Street.  It’s that type of character that inspires visitors to want to stop and explore downtown areas when they are passing through.  Interesting businesses say to visitors that there’s more going on in the city than just the same corporate franchises that provide exactly the same product all across the country.

However, there are more benefits to small local businesses that you only realize once you begin to regularly visit these Mom and Pop shops in your community.  Of course, certain types of establishments attract more attention than others, and those tend to be in the retail, food and beverage, and hospitality sector.

A great community can be hard to explain, but you know it when you experience it. If you don’t go to local small businesses, then you won’t understand how they contribute to building community, and you’re missing out on one of the simple pleasures of life.

You may have heard the term quality (or primacy) of place.  That’s a fancy way of talking about community and all of the positive things that make a person want to live somewhere.   Community happens when there is something unique, fun, or interesting that draws people together.   We connect with those around us and even provide support for those we connect with.  We learn people’s names and about their families, and we interact in ways that we never would in a big box store in corporate America.  Sometimes, we even learn to see things from other’s points of view.  Those sorts of positive interactions have all sorts of benefits to the community.  They contribute to accountability, the sharing of ideas, and the overall health and well-being of all those that participate.

Creating community is a big part of our mission at The Downtown Farm Stand.  People come into local businesses because they want great food and drink and products and services and for many other reasons.  But they also visit because it’s a ritual for them, something they look forward to, and their visits are a throwback to times when local stores and restaurants dotted every corner in every neighborhood of every city and town.  People know your name.  You feel connected and you ARE connected to the people that grow your food, the people that cook your food, and that produce goods and perform services. In turn, they also become your friends and neighbors. That’s a benefit that is lost if you don’t participate in local business and in your community.

In Muncie, the city has done much to work on downtown development efforts (on Walnut Street.) Simultaneously, it is also trying to feed the beast that killed the Muncie downtown back in the 1960s and '70s, and that’s the McGalliard Road chain stores and huge corporate stores.  We’re a small city of 60,000-70,000 people, with many unemployed or underemployed residents.  I don’t believe you can feed both the downtown merchant area and the McGalliard Road chain stores at the same time and expect them both to thrive.

You also cannot compare Fishers, Indianapolis, or Chicago to Muncie because we are small and they are big; that’s comparing apples to oranges. In a small city, there are only so many retail dollars to go around. The pie (of retail dollars) is small, and it can only be divided into so many pieces.

In the case of The Downtown Farm Stand, we located here in 2007.  We slowly built a clientele through hard work, quality food, excellent service,  education of the issues of organic and local food, perseverance, and by building community.  Throughout that time and against all odds (Who opens up an independent grocery store these days when profit margins are less than 5 percent?), the community literally willed us to survive.

If we as a community can help more small local farms and businesses get started and established, then that will mean more jobs and more spin off businesses that are local. We would love for the larger community to embrace the idea of Muncie building a community economy based around food production and the arts.

I believe in large part, our community doesn't understand  the amazing intangible benefits of how local businesses help to build community. Go visit a small business today and see how it benefits you. 

Dave Ring is owner of The Downtown Farm Stand, Muncie.