Along with his estimate, the contractor said something most of us likely wouldn’t expect to hear from someone in the service industry. 

Naming another, much larger, competitor, he noted that they may be able to do the job cheaper. 

Without a second thought, I shook my head. “No,” I told him. “I trust you. I’d prefer that you do the job.”

This was the second time in as many weeks that I’d had to make a choice like this. Just a few days prior, I’d chosen my local pharmacy over a national chain to fill a prescription that was becoming a major headache. 

This is where I have to throw out a host of financial disclaimers. 

I don’t like spending extra money anymore than the average American. I don’t even have extra money — not with inflation, not with a teenager in college, a furnace on the fritz, a mortgage to pay, and, well, you get the idea.  

But that contractor who simply couldn’t compete with a larger competitor’s volume-base pricing? I’ll never forget that time he and his family invited mine into their home to shower and eat dinner when a major snowstorm knocked our power out for days on end, can’t ignore the many things I’ve seen him do for our small community.  

And the staff at that pharmacy has often gone above and beyond, fielding calls from my doctor about available medications, reaching out on behalf of a member of my family when a refill request was a little bit behind. 

When I consider the word “community,” this is what it means to me — people who put in as much as they take out. 

Keeping them around comes at a cost, but then again, the return on the investment is priceless.