Every time I hear about Shop Local campaigns, I feel a twinge of guilt. After all, I earn my living by encouraging people to shop online. I teach people how to get free shipping so that they do not even have to visit their local stores. And yet, as a small business owner, I want to encourage people to support other small business. How do I reconcile all of this?

Without a doubt you can save money online. My first thought is always that if I can save $10 by buying something online, that is $10 more that I can spend on something else. Chances are pretty good that I will then end up spending that $10 at a local restaurant, or maybe at the hairdresser. If I hadn’t saved that $10, I might not be spending it in those ways.

My second thought is that you can shop online and still support small businesses. Those businesses may not be in your hometown, but you are still supporting companies besides WalMart and Sears and Kmart (who I honestly wouldn’t care to ever shop at again). At Sunshine Rewards, we definitely go out of our way to promote the small businesses that we come across as long as they provide a good shopping experience for our members.

The one things that impacts where I spend my money most is the relationship that I have with the seller. For example, I will only buy my contacts from my optometrist. I know I could get them cheaper online. However, my optometrist is a really great guy and goes out of his way to take care of my eyes. For that reason, I want to give him my business. Conversely, I buy all of my makeup online because I have a great relationship with Sephora–they give me good deals and free samples and don’t make me nervous when I am browsing.

It’s a difficult decision to choose to save money by shopping online when you know that there are stores in your community who probably sell the same things. Moreover, a true “Shop Local” purchase would be to bypass your local Borders and get all of your books at the higher priced locally owned bookstore. I’m sure that there are people who do that, but I’d go broke doing that with as many books as I buy a month.

Do you shop online? Do you try to Shop Local? Do you feel guilty for not shopping locally?