Shop Local

Your dollars spent in locally-owned businesses have three times the impact on your community as dollars spent at national chains. When shopping locally, you simultaneously create jobs, fund more city services through sales tax, invest in neighborhood improvement and promote community development. Several studies have shown that when you buy from an independent, locally owned business, rather than a nationally owned business, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses and providers. (Click here to see summaries of a variety of economic impact studies; these include case studies showing that locally owned businesses generate a premium in enhanced economic impact to the community and our tax base.)

Where we shop, where we eat and have fun — all of it makes our community home. Our one-of-a-kind businesses are an integral part of the distinctive character of this place. Our tourism businesses also benefit.  “When people go on vacation they generally seek out destinations that offer them the sense of being someplace, not just anyplace.” ~ Richard Moe, President, National Historic Preservation Trust.

Local businesses are owned by people who live in this community making them less likely to leave and are more invested in the community’s future. Local ownership means that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of their decisions. 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.

Entrepreneurship fuels America’s economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class. A growing body of economic research shows that in an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.

Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally and in our community, provide the most jobs to residents.

Evidence from numerous surveys show people receive better customer care and service locally. Local businesses survive by their reputation and repeat business. This means you get a higher standard of service and people with a better understanding of the products they are selling who take more time to get to know you.

A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.  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.

Local businesses in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.

Small business owners give, on average, 250% more support to local community groups than larger businesses give.  This contribution gives more support to our local community.

Locally owned businesses often stock a high percentage of local sourced goods requiring less transportation and generally set up shop in town or city centers as opposed to developing on the fringe. This generally means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution helping reduce our global footprint.