Let’s say you are starting a small business. You need to get letterhead, envelopes, business cards, direct-mail flyers or postcards, in-store signage, vinyl banners, and the like. What do you do?
Or, you have been tasked with getting custom t-shirts printed for your school, church, club, or organization. The 5K is coming up soon and you’ve got to hustle to get that order in, or the committee head will have your head!
Your first instinct is probably to grab your smartphone and start Googling. But before you hit “search,” read these five great reasons to have your custom screen printing done locally and support small business in your community.
1. Hands-On Browsing
Have you ever ordered clothing online? No matter how many reviews you read, it often turns out that inexpensive garments are scratchy, thin, ill-fitting, or just plain cheap-feeling. It’s much better to stop by that cute little boutique downtown where you can try things on, feel the fabric, and get a sense of how well a skirt has been sewn.
The same is true for custom t-shirts or other screen printed items. When you shop locally, you can look at the samples and evaluate them for yourself instead of having to rely on the opinion of Angie R. from Boise.
2. A Smaller Carbon Footprint
Walkability is a strong selling point for many communities, but even if you have to drive to the screen printer’s, you’re going easy on the environment when you shop locally.
If you order banners or placards online, they’re just as likely to be shipped from overseas, or at least from across the country. That creates more fuel consumption, more emissions, and more packaging that may or may not be recyclable.
Shop locally and you slash all of those harmful environmental impacts significantly.
3. Expert and Personalized Customer Service
Online stores might offer you chatbots or an impersonal customer service agent located who-knows-where. And chances are neither of those will be able to answer your questions or provide expert advice.
Head to a local business for your needs, and you’ll be helped by an actual person who’s happy to actually help you instead of just taking care of a ticket number.
4. Build a Community with Character
Imagine a neighborhood lined with a Sprawl-Mart, a Costington’s, and a Try N’ Save. These are satirical businesses from The Simpsons, but you know which big-box or chain stores they’re skewering, don’t you?
Do you want to live in that community? Or in one that has real heart, real character, and real locals who work and live among unique places to shop? Don’t know about you, but we’d take a real place over a fictional one any day.
5. Mo’ Money, Mo’ Jobs
When you give your hard-earned dollars to a local biz, you are keeping money in your city or town. That can have a ripple effect, causing others to spend their money at home, too.
It also creates more jobs. More jobs equals more money circulating in the community. See where we’re going with this?
Support Small Business: It Just Makes Sense
Like many incredible companies, The Art Department was started in a garage, way back in the awesome 80s. We’ve grown by leaps and bounds since then, but we have continued to serve the greater Los Angeles community with quality products and excellent service.
Give us a call, or stop by our Redondo Beach location to see for yourself why it’s great to support small business for your screen printing needs!