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Social media came alive over the weekend with the reports of Albert Lea’s Big Lots closing and Marthaler Honda moving to Owatonna next year.

While we are sad to see the businesses leaving the community, we wish people would turn their energy into helping the city grow and flourish instead of bringing it down through negativity and disparaging comments for the whole world to see.

Yes, we wish more could be done to expand the businesses in the community — especially the retail here — but people need to realize that going online and bashing the community isn’t doing anyone any favors. In fact, you might be hurting the city’s chances more.

Though business closures are not always the result of a lack of local spending, we hope people will use this time to reflect on their own spending in and out of the community.

We ask you to take a moment to pause and take an inventory of your own purchases over the last few months. How many arrived at your home in a box or bag through the mail or came after a drive an hour or two away? How many did you buy at a locally owned store? Can you honestly say you tried to look for items at the local stores before venturing outside of the community or online?

Research shows that small businesses generate $68 of local economic return for every $100 spent with them. That number is much smaller for big box companies and other internet-based businesses.

If a majority of your purchases are coming with the click of a button online, we think it’s safe to say that this is not contributing to the community or its business growth, either.

We hope business announcements like these will be a wakeup call for residents.

Before throwing all the blame at one entity or another, we all need to be a little better and try a little harder to support local.

And if there’s something you want but can’t find here, start researching what it would take to start your own business and bring it here.