What does “Buy Local” mean, anyway?

I was at a “mom and pop” coffee shop and noticed a sign (in the restroom, of all places) that displayed: “We appreciate your business. Buy local!”

This seems to be a popular mantra these days. But what does it really mean, to implore customers to “buy local”? What is “local”? I think the implication is “corporate” versus “mom and pop.” But corporate franchises are typically owned by a local proprietor. Even “corporate-owned” branches are employing local people, selling goods to local people and paying local taxes. And even if the employees weren’t local, they came from somewhere else to work locally, so they’re local, right? Regardless, they were local to somewhere. Why is this local better than that local? Basically, what makes “local” local? And why is local local better, anyway?

I’m not sure what is gained by limiting what you buy (as much as possible) to local providers. No group of people has ever created long-term wealth by strictly buying goods and services made at home that could have been obtained more cheaply somewhere else. Imagine that as a Tennessean, you stopped trading with people in other states. You would not get your carpet from Georgia. You would not buy your furniture from North Carolina. You would not import Pabst Blue Ribbon from Milwaukee. Life would be actually be pretty miserable.

I think it sounds noble enough to proclaim, but the notion of “buying local” doesn’t hold up under much rational scrutiny. In fact, I see it as basically a strain of conservative isolationism, writ small perhaps, but conservative nonetheless.