4 Seasons Podcast

Choosing Your Local Main Street Over One-Click Checkouts Strengthens Your Community

• Jeff Bingham • Episode 23

Share episode

How Does Commercialization Of The Holidays Impact Local Investing And Our Lives?

Holiday ads shout, timers tick, and our carts fill fast—but what do those dollars actually do for the place we call home? We dig into the tension between one‑click convenience and the community value of Main Street, sharing stories from downtown Kingsport and the sensory joy that only in‑person shopping delivers: the lights, the smells, and the conversations that make the season feel real.

We talk about the quiet math behind local spending—how sales tax and small‑business activity fund schools, streets, parks, and cultural events. Jeff Bingham of B&H Wealth Strategies explains why the words we use matter, pushing back on the idea that we’re only consumers and inviting us to act as citizens with agency. We unpack the long‑term costs of showrooming, the ripple effects when local merchants close, and why paying a little more can buy white‑glove service, better advice, and a stronger civic fabric.

This is not a call to ditch big retailers; it’s a plan to balance them. You can keep the convenience when it’s needed and still choose local when it builds the town you want to live in. We share simple rules of thumb—look local first, reward expertise with your purchase, and turn errands into traditions by making an evening of downtown shopping with family. The result is a season that feels richer, a community that grows healthier, and a holiday budget that works harder for your neighbors.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves small businesses, and leave a quick review to help more people find us. And if you’re ready to align your finances with your values, schedule a free 20‑minute consultation at BHRetire.com or call 423‑247‑1152.

To learn more about B&H Wealth Strategies visit:
https://www.BHRetire.com
B&H Wealth Strategies
423- 247-1152

SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to the Four Seasons Podcast, brought to you by BH Wealth Strategies, serving Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia since 1966. Here, we guide you through the ever-changing seasons of your financial journey, offering insights to help you grow, protect, and enjoy your wealth. Ready to turn your financial dreams into reality? Dare to dream. And now, here's your host, President of BH Wealth Strategies, Jeff Bingham.

SPEAKER_01:

The holiday season isn't just about spending. Welcome back, everybody. Skip Monty here, back in the studio with the Four Seasons podcast and president of BH Wealth Strategies, Jeff Bingham. Jeff, how you been this week?

SPEAKER_00:

I've been doing well, Skip. How about yourself?

SPEAKER_01:

Doing just fine, doing just fine. Reflecting a little bit on the the the season we're in now, moving into the holidays, and you know, thought it'd be a timely topic to talk about, you know, commercialization. How does that impact the holidays and local investing in our lives?

SPEAKER_00:

No, I think that's uh as we were talking a little on off-air, off camera, uh, a little bit about that and what that what that topic actually kind of meant and how we would talk about that. I think um as we move into to Black Friday, you know, kind of the beginning of that, and then that just you know takes us all the way into the Christmas, into the Christmas holiday season and all the shopping. I you know, I think, you know, I mean, obviously everything in the world, and certainly in in the uh in the US, uh is highly commercialized, and you'd have a whole conversation around that. But, you know, and one of the things that I always you know kind of point out when uh when given an opportunity to have a a soapbox is that uh I think very intentionally uh that that corporate America advertising has has labeled us now as consumers and not citizens anymore. And I think that's d distinctly on purpose. Uh and and and we're and we are great consumers uh as a nation. And uh we seem to welcome commercialization uh without without much hesitation. But I think uh you know, I think if we reflected a little more on that, we might you know push into the holiday season with a little more uh with a little more meaning and purpose and what it's actually all about, but I'll stay away from that. But but I also think that where we are inundated uh through wherever we whatever media sources that we get it from, I mean I would usually say television and cable and advertising, all those kind of things. I mean, I know with you know podcasts and stuff like we're doing, but there's still advertising everywhere that's out there. And that all most of all of that comes from a very national perspective. And in other words, uh we don't shop locally very much anymore. And you, you know, local business owners and entrepreneurs uh you know in retail spaces have just kind of gone by the wayside. You know, we see comebacks from time to time, and you know, I'm I'm here in Kingsport uh and we look at downtown, and then and I think downtown Kingsport tries very hard to promote all the businesses down there. And I think they do a good job with that. I think the chamber does a good job with that, and they they do a number of things, and I think we'll see a pretty good push for that as we move into the holiday seasons. And what uh what I will tell um anybody that'll that'll listen is is that support your local communities, support these businesses that are here. These are your neighbors, you know, these are your cohorts that are out there. Uh, and if you can get your product from there, you don't have to have it delivered to your doorstep. Go out into the community and walk around downtown Kingsport, you know, take your kids down there, support the local restaurants, you know, and walk into these stores and um fill the atmosphere of shopping during Christmas. The, you know, I can remember when I was a little kid and you know, going downtown Kingsport into Dobbin's Taylor that has been on and out of business for years and years now. But I can remember when I was young and you'd go in there and it had, you know, as a general store, it had just about everything in there. But it also had a really cool sports department. And then there was also a place where they would make, you know, like candies and popcorns. You could just smell, you know, those smells that you'd get from being, you know, engaged that it really heightened the the holiday experience and kind of make you know that you know that Christmas is on is is is close. And uh, I don't know. I just think that, you know, the the noise and the the smells and just the feeling that you get from that, and then seeing the things and being able to touch things and get excited as you know about what you know, especially if you've got children or what what they want for Christmas and to be able to kind of see that, you know, and and and it's just you you miss that from you know going on to you know, pulling up on a computer screen, pulling up, you know, uh no no knock on Amazon, but I'll knock on them for a minute. You pull up Amazon, you know, your Amazon Prime account, and you just go in, you drop it in your car, boom, you you buy it, and it's you know you look at it, you buy it. It's there the next day and you put it, you know, in the closet, you pull it out, you wrap it, you know, put it under the tree for Christmas. You know, that's pretty, that's a pretty, I don't know, it just doesn't feel right. I mean, just you know, and that's what we all do. I mean, I do it myself. I mean, I've been doing it, doing it for years, but I think, like I said, I just, I don't know, I think there's just something about, you know, when the air gets crisp, um, you know, and uh the Christmas lights are up in downtown Kingford or wherever your community is where you're listening to this, or if you're lucky enough to go someplace, you know, even go to New York City, you know, when they, you know, with the Christmas tree lights up and you can go shopping there. I've been there, you know, after Thanksgiving, just that the feel of of that, the sense of that, the excitement that's in the air, and and watching, you know, and I think kids still really get excited about that. And I don't know, that's you know, I mean, that's one thing that the Christmas and and Thanksgiving are about family and friends and faith. Uh, and I think when you just set that, you know, aside and you do all of your all of your all of your shopping, for much of your shopping and you do it online and you don't go out and experience that, you know, you just are not experiencing life the way life is meant to be experienced. You've got to go out into the crisp fall or winter air as it is. Maybe there's some snow, you know, spitting that's out there, or maybe it's, you know, it's even laying on the ground. I mean, what a I just think that's that that beauty and that experience is is lost with this online, you know, web-based consumerism that we that we've gone into. And that's, you know, and again, that doesn't have a lot to do with you know, with investing uh like we talk about generally, but I think it does have a lot to do with investing in our communities, which I think is is is as important as anything we can do. Go out and and support your neighbors, your your the citizens of your community. Don't buy it, you know, and don't don't go in there and look and see what they have and get excited about something that you like and then go buy it online. I think that's something, you know, that that has always kind of driven me crazy about people is that they'll go, you know, kind of window shop and even pick the brain of shop owners and places like that. Uh, I used to watch it in a golf business all the time and using it as an example where you'll go in and you'll see that and you'll go and buy it from a you know from a big box, you know, online and short and have it stipped to you or shipped to you, and not buy it from the local business owner that's trying to, you know, scratch out a living and provide a a service, you know, kind of a you know, a white glove service to you, and you and you you you take advantage of the white glove service, so to speak, but you don't buy the product from them. You go buy the product from you know from a from a big box retail place online because you might save a few dollars on it. I mean, I think that's I think we've gotten used to doing that, and I think it's and we just we put the the small business owner you know out of business, we just don't have much human contact anymore. And I just think it's an absolute shame. Maybe it'll never maybe maybe that's just the way it is. And and I'm an old fuddy dud, I guess, when I say those kind of things, but I really do miss that. I mean, I like you know, walking in and just experiencing people and contact, you know. Go go like I said, go go walk barefoot in the grass, go smell, go smell the Christmas smells, the popcorn, the cider, you know, whatever it is, right? Go go out and experience that. You don't get that online. No, you don't.

SPEAKER_01:

No, you don't. And you know, uh you mentioned, you touched on this, but small businesses, the the uh especially the holiday season is critical for for a lot of small businesses when that may or may not be the only uh profitable time they have. So how does local spending influence uh economies and small businesses?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I mean, I think, you know, again, I mean, it's it's it's critical to, I mean, you know, we we pay, you know, and we all do this, and I'm guilty of this as well. I mean, we look how much attention we pay to to to national politics all the time, and we don't pay any, or m not many of us pay much attention to to local politics, you know, at all, the who's, you know, running for board mayor at all the run, who's running for, you know, the Board of Education and things like that. And I say that because every I mean, how we fund our cities, right, our communities and our school systems and our roads and on and on and on is through the the revenue and the sales tax and the various things in the state, but also in the local community that support our local government and has much more impact on us than it does from a national perspective. I mean, the national perspective is more exciting, you know, it's covered more, but I can tell you what goes on down there, you know, at the Board of Mayor Renalderman here in Kingsport is much more impactful to our day-to-day lives than it is. And like I said, and that's and where I'm, I guess, pointing it out is that the local businesses that are there, they need to be, you know, supported by the community because again, all of that that happens in our community, that's money, stays in the community, right? And it builds the infrastructure that we have and it builds the the possibilities of bringing other exciting things and things that we want to have in our community as we say, well, we're not getting this, we're not getting that or the other. You gotta rate, you have to have revenue to do that. And that revenue, part of that revenue stream is gonna come from those local businesses. And when they're being when we're not supporting those and they're either having to shut their doors or just scrimp and struggle to get by, you know, and just kind of because they've been there for a long time, they'll kind of hang in there. But, you know, we we don't have the opportunities to to grow and bring in the things that can enrich in uh our communities, not just from a from a wealth perspective, but enriches from a you know from a from a cultural perspective and bring new things in here. And we wonder why we don't get that is because we don't support, you know, we don't support as much as in my opinion that we should is our our local business owners. I mean, I think it's a shame. We've just gotten out of it, we've just gotten out of the habit of doing that because again, we've become consumers. We're, you know, we we stay at home more than we used to. I mean, we you know, we're taking our kids here and there, but we stay at home. Our entertainment comes from home. We don't go out and get entertained. You know, we watch Netflix, we've got everything we want in our living rooms, including delivering everything that we want. I mean, really, we could exist and never I mean, we've we've built a a civilization to where we could never leave our homes and be supported from the day we're born to the day we die almost. You know, I mean from from I mean, think about telodon, I mean not from medicine to everything. And I mean it's great to have that convenience, but we should use it only when necessary. We shouldn't just exclusively use that and not get out and meet and greet and press flesh with other human beings.

SPEAKER_01:

I couldn't agree more. And uh and you know, of course, big supporter of small business. Um, you know, it's worth it sometimes. You mentioned, you know, paying just a little bit more um uh for the white glove service and uh you know pay those people for it. Don't uh like you said, don't go use them and then and then go online to save six bucks.

SPEAKER_00:

I you know, I and again, I get it. I mean, uh in a sense, I I get it. But I think we do that, you know, you know, so much to to our to truly our long our our de our long-term detriment. I really do believe we do that. I think I think the local business owner, the entrepreneur, the guy that's out there, uh, or the gal, the person that's risking uh, you know, putting it on the line every day. You know, they they they're getting up and you know, they're they're putting their pants on and they're going down there and they're they're getting after it. And uh, you know, and you know, we you you want to be you want to be respected, you want to be valued when you go to your workplace, whether you're going to Eastman or whether you're working at the hospital, wherever you are, and those local business owners, man, they they want to be respected and and valued in the same way. And they're bringing a value to you that you're not getting if you're ordered online. You're not getting anybody that's targeted. They're not bringing to you, they're not telling you how it works. You can't take it back to them and ask them how it works. You know, I mean, you can watch a YouTube video, I suppose, but I don't know. I just, you know, I don't know. I have a lot of, like I said, I'm I'm I'm old, you know, I was born a long time ago, uh, but I really, I really miss, you know, that kind of thing. And I mean, it's what we try to do here. I mean, you know, at BH, you know, well strategies, I mean, we're not a retail shop like that, but uh, but you can come on, I mean, our business has been commoditized. I mean, but what we bring is a service that, again, not everybody is gonna want it, but what we bring is a service that is what we call white glover, our four seasons, you know, uh experience, which is, you know, understanding our customer, anticipating what your needs are, getting to know you, you know, whether it, and that's true, whether it's it's a financial planning service, it's a it's a local pharmacy, it's your local clothier, you know, like a uh, you know, shops that are out there, and those are far and few between. Um, you know, to whatever whatever else you want to, you know, talk about your local hardware stores, you know, those kind of things. Uh you know, fix, you know, your car repair shops that you go to. I mean, all of those things are just so important. Um, and those are people that are in there and human, you know, that human contact and that experience that they can, those people can just provide, you know, services, a service to you that's so far beyond just what they're what you're buying from them, the product or the service. It's the experience, you know, and you know, you can what you'll find oftentimes is that where you think you're just gonna go in there and and it's just gonna be a transaction, a lot of times, man, you meet these people and they become your friends, it becomes a transformational experience, you know, versus a transactional experience. And that's you know, that's the beautiful thing about the about the world we live in, the way that it can be. And again, I mean, again, where we're a kind of, you know, and we're still gonna use, we're still gonna use the Amazons, we're still gonna use, and I'm not picking on Amazon or or Walmart or any of these places where we get deliveries and we need things that we and I use them certainly uh for for things and we invest in those companies. And where are our portfolios invested? Our portfolios are invested in those, in those big companies, right? That that I'm talking about don't support them in their entirety, you know, support the local guy. We're not we're investing in them because that's in our community. We're investing in them because they're our friends, they're our family, they're they are in our churches, they're in our civic groups, you know, uh, and then they help, you know, support the revenue streams that our community needs, you know. So those you can do both. Uh, and I think both are are critical. So that's you know just a little bit of a throwback to the local versus the the national investing, you know, portfolios that we that we have, you know, that are that are there. So, you know, I think this is a it was a fun episode and I think uh an important one.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Couldn't agree more. Again, buy local. Too too too important. And Jeff, uh that was a very thoughtful look at how our seasonal choices shape both our finances and our communities. So thanks so much for that. Speaking of the holidays, happy Thanksgiving, and uh we'll see you in the next episode.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, happy Thanksgiving to you as well, and God bless. God bless you too.

SPEAKER_02:

Thanks for tuning in to the Four Seasons Podcast, brought to you by BH Wealth Strategies, where your financial success is our priority. Schedule your free 20-minute consultation today by calling 423-247-1152 or by visiting bhretire.com. Take the first step toward making your financial dreams come true. Until next time, remember, every season is the right season to plan for your future. Securities and registered investment advisory services offered through Silver Oak Securities, Inc. member FINRA SIPC, BH Wealth Strategies and Silver Oak Securities Inc. are not affiliated.