What does it mean to buy local, or buy Australian? And does it matter?
The “Buy Local” movement aims to bring awareness to consumers to purchase their desired goods and services from a company that has its operations or production within Australia, your home state or even closer!
Below are some of the key reasons you should give Australian companies a higher priority when reviewing your purchase options.
Speed
This one is quick (no pun intended) to explain. Generally speaking it’s faster to deliver a product that’s already in the country than it is to wait for it to arrive from overseas and clear customs.
Kindly Gifted Co uses Australia Post to deliver our gift boxes, except in the case where a buyer selects our free local delivery option. You can read more about our delivery options here.
Trust
A big benefit to you, the customer, is trust and confidence.
Australia has comprehensive standards that companies must adhere to in a range of areas such as cleanliness and hygiene, occupational health and safety, and ethical treatment of workers. You can typically rest assured that businesses that produce and sell products within Australia are operating to a high standard. For small businesses in particular, any reputation damage would be a significant disadvantage so you’ll often see them go above and beyond to ensure the best possible product and service.
You’re also safely protected under Australian consumer law. If a product is not fit for use or fails in an unreasonably short timeframe you have legal rights to seek a remedy. When purchasing from overseas companies, complications can arise from differing legal frameworks and even the ability to get in touch with the company at all. It’s tricky enough to organise return shipping overseas for a faulty item, and in a worst case scenario the company might have folded up and disappeared altogether.
That’s not to say that purchasing within Australia is completely without risk - of course you should always make inquiries to reassure yourself of the reliability of a company you’re about to do business with. But you’ll tend to have an easier path to a resolution should something go wrong along the way.
Economic Benefits
When you purchase from an Australian-owned company, that money stays in Australia. A lot of it will be reinvested into the company by way of supplies or research and development, a portion will be paid as tax to the Australian Taxation Office which contributes to national services and infrastructure, and any profits returned to the owners are likely to be spent here for the most part.
There are flow-on effects to other companies involved in the supply chain, across industries such as logistics and transport, manufacturing, materials supply, food and beverage and more.
At Kindly Gifted Co it’s our philosophy to select Australian-based suppliers as much as possible. When you purchase from us, you’re supporting several Australian businesses all at once. For example, well-known Australian company Snuggle Hunny supplies several of the baby products we use in our gift packs; our chocolates are purchased from the Ministry of Chocolate who is based in Croydon, Victoria and sources their fruits from the Mornington Peninsula; our hot chocolate varieties come from Grounded Pleasures in the regional town of Ballarat; the list goes on.
Skills and Jobs
Probably an obvious point, but the more business you give to Australian-based companies, the more opportunity they have to employ locals.
It’s not just employment either - it also provides the company with the chance to upskill employees or refine industrial specialties to create unique competitive advantages that may eventually be in demand worldwide.
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