Localized Benefits

A friend of mine was recently telling me a story about how some recruiters from a church recently came by his place and talked to him. Religion aside, there was one topic that came up that really drew my attention. Skipping over the context, they said that their church members did all their grocery shopping at a locally owned an operated grocery chain because the benefits stay within the community. This strikes me as an anti-trade statement, which on a whole is counter-productive.
A lot of firms in Canada are headquartered in Toronto, then again, somewhere on the order of 10% of the population of the country live in that one city. There are so many people there, I think it would be hard not to imagine finding a lot of people without some kind of connection to the place. Many of my friends and relatives live there.
Beyond helping out people who are where the regional and head offices for those firms are, there's also the stake holders that contributed money instead of time. Banks that handle corporate accounts benefit, it gets passed on to their employees, depositors, bondholders and shareholders. As does the firm's bondholders and shareholders. Tax payers always benefit too.
Shopping around also saves you money on things and lets you take up larger stakes to draw more of the delocalized benefits into your area, patronize other businesses operating in your area or give to local, national and international causes.
It's rather silly to see the money as leaving the community. For the most part, shopping around grows the pie for everyone. It's also kind of hypocritical to say that we're a group that tries to help people, but your aunts and uncles aren't important because we can't see them in front of us.