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Embracing our roots |
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Tuesday, 18 December 2007 |
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Page 2 of 3
The benefits of buying local
Willard began selling her homemade Sublime Key Lime pies nearly two years ago. She explored selling them in chain grocery stores, but nixed the idea because it was too costly for what she would likely see in return.
“It’s just not worth it with all the hurdles you have to jump between the packaging costs and everything,” Willard said. “It’s about a $50,000 minimum investment just to get your product in the stores, and there’s no guarantee it will sell. Realistically, local items pretty much sit there and collect dust. It becomes a touristy thing, but in reality, these are great products. We have so many resources at our fingertips.”
And yet consumers flock to stores where the products are cheaper and where food, clothing, books and toothpaste can be procured in one trip. While the convenience of megastores is undeniable, Willard argues the benefits of buying locally outweigh that advantage.
“My products are so fresh. The eggs are just two or three days old,” Willard said. “My farmers deliver the product to me personally. If a customer has a question about the pork, I can give them the rancher’s phone number. Also, the products are not being trucked in from California, so we’re not wasting diesel or gas.”
Nationwide, groups like Lowcountry Local First are forming to educate consumers about the advantages of shopping locally. LLF is an affiliate of the San Francisco-based Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, a national nonprofit that grew out of a project that originated in Philadelphia. The business alliance was formed in 2001 and since then, 54 networks have popped up in communities around the country.
A study conducted last year by the Think Local First program based in Bellingham, Wash., revealed 58% of residents said they are more deliberate in choosing to shop at locally owned businesses than they had been prior to the program’s inception in 2003. Researcher Pamela Jull called the results “phenomenal.”
“Normally, if one in five households claim familiarity with your program, and changes their behavior because of it, you would consider it a success,” Jull wrote in the study. “To have nearly three in five households attributing a behavior change to this program shows amazing impact.”
Driving this desire to alter the buying habits of residents is a universal realization that as more and more multinational corporations move into communities, more and more locally owned, independent businesses disappear, said Ann Bartz, network development manager for Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.
“People are watching small businesses close their doors and they want to figure out how to preserve what’s left by supporting independent businesses that are integral to the fabric of community,” Bartz said. “Others want to preserve farmland outside of the communities. People want to learn how to support and strengthen their community’s economic picture. People want to live somewhere that has unique character, not somewhere that looks like any strip mall in the U.S.A.”
But more significant than nostalgia or aesthetic appeal are theories that independent businesses are actually more beneficial to a community’s economy than multinational chain stores. According to Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, economic development approaches would be more successful by supporting existing independent businesses instead of trying to attract large corporations. Locally owned businesses have a higher stake in and a greater connection to the community, Bartz said.
“The old paradigm has been to give away almost your whole tax base (in the form of) large subsidies to large corporations, begging them to come into a community and create jobs. So often this doesn’t work out,” Bartz said.
“Usually large companies are less responsive to the local environment and working conditions and regulations than small, locally owned businesses whose owners live in the community. Giant corporations so often leave a big hole in a community or lay off a bunch of people when the economic winds change. Independently owned businesses are more rooted in a community and are more likely to adapt to changing economic conditions. They’ll figure out how to stay put and support the community where they’ve grown up.”
Civic Economics, a research group based in Chicago and Austin, Texas, has examined differences in the economic impact of local and national businesses in Austin, San Francisco and Andersonville, Ill., near Chicago. While specific numbers varied, certain patterns were evident in all three cities. Across the board, local businesses put more money back into local economies.
“We didn’t realize how dramatic the findings would be,” said researcher Matt Cunningham.
In Andersonville, the study focused on 10 locally owned businesses that agreed to open their books to Civic Economics and have their spending habits compared with those of national chain stores.
“For every $100 in consumer spending at Borders, the total local economic impact is only $13,” the study said. “The same amount spent with BookPeople or Waterloo Records (local bookstores) yields more than three times the local economic impact.”
In San Francisco, researchers predicted that diverting just 10% of purchases from national chain stores to locally owned businesses would create 1,300 new jobs annually and yield nearly $200 million in incremental economic activity.
But customers of multinational corporations have opportunities to donate to their local community through shopping. Target Visa cardholders can dedicate 1% of total purchases back to a school of their choice. This holiday season, purchasing a variety of specialty items will benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. On a national level, Target partners with national nonprofit organizations such as the American Red Cross, the United Way and the Salvation Army.
In South Carolina, 2007 Local Store Grants gave $122,700 to its communities. In September 2007, Target’s Take Charge of Education program gave $79,478 to its local schools.
Since the program’s inception, Target has given more than $1 million in support of local schools. For the past five years Target has supported the EdVenture Museum in Columbia through grant dollars, volunteerism and board membership. In addition, Target grants have supported the Black Pages International’s Black Expo in Columbia. The expo promotes economic development, education and the arts within the black community.
“We aren’t trying to say that national companies are all bad,” Cunningham said. “But communities should try to create a level playing field for all businesses—local and national. The tax breaks, prime real estate and incentive packages available to national companies should be available to local merchants as well.”
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