As the Chamber Director it is my duty to support the Chamber Members. I would like to share some information with you about shopping locally and supporting our local Chamber Member Businesses! _______________________________________________ Big-box merchants may win at the pricing game, but locally owned small businesses can save shoppers time - and put more money back into the community. (Quote from: Jeff Milchen, Co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance) When consumers purchase from independently owned local businesses 64% of the money stays local - when purchased from the big-box retailers only 36% stays local. _______________________________________________ The following comes from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a national nonprofit organization working to strengthen independent businesses and local economies, and is reprinted here with permission. The 10 top reasons to Shop locally! 1. Local Character and Prosperity In an increasingly homogenized world, communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character have an economic advantage. 2. Community Well-Being Locally owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a web of economic and social relationships, and contributing to local causes. 3. Local Decision-Making Local ownership ensures that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions. 4. Keeping Dollars in the Local Economy Compared to chain stores, locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local economy, enriching the whole community. 5. Job and Wages Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in some sectors, provide better wages and benefits than chains do. 6. Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship fuels Americas economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class. 7. Public Benefits and Costs Local stores in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls. 8. Environmental Sustainability Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers-which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution. 9. Competition A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term. 10. Product Diversity A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based, not on a national sales plan, but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 20:41:44 +0000
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