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8 (Really Good!) Reasons to Shop Local
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You can make a difference by being aware of the impact of your dollars. A locally owned, independent business returns approximately 70% of each dollar spent back to the community. Take a stand and choose to keep your town thriving by supporting the locally owned businesses in your community.

Start with something easy, like a cup of coffee, some freshly baked bread, a unique gift or household items, and go from there.

  1. Community Well-Being

    2. Locally owned businesses build strong neighborhoods by sustaining communities, linking neighbors, and by contributing more to local charities, schools and events. They're owned by people who live in the community, are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the community's future.

  2. Dollars Re-circulate and Stay Local

    3. 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...(read more)

  3. Local Shops Value You More

    4. Evidence from numerous surveys show people receive better customer care and service locally. Local businesses survive by reputation. Plus, a familiar face equals a warmer smile.

  4. Local Decision Making

    5. Local ownership means that important decisions affecting you and your town, are made by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions right along side you.

  5. Be Distinct

    6. Wouldn't you hate it if all the local shops with their unique product mixes disappeared? Local shops tend to local needs. They know you and create distinctive shopping experiences and stock different products to cater to the community.

  6. Preserve the Environment

    7. 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. They make more local purchases, thus reducing their transportation costs and their carbon footprint.

  7. More Jobs and New Businesses

    8. Small local businesses are the largest employers nationally. By shopping there you are asking them to stay and grow. Plus private and public sector services cluster around shops. The more they see economic growth, the more attracted they are to moving their business to town.

  8. Celebrate Competition and Diversity

    9. A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based on the needs of their local customers and not on a national sales plan, guarantees a much broader range of product choices and low prices over the long-term.