1.Significantly more money re-circulates in your community when you
buy from locally owned, rather than nationally owned, businesses: More
money stays in the community because locally owned businesses purchase
from other local businesses, service providers, and farms. Purchasing
locally helps grow other businesses as well as your community’s tax
base.
2.Local businesses provide most new jobs: Small local businesses are
the largest employer nationally, and in most communities provide the
most new jobs to residents.
3.One-of-a-kind businesses are an integral part of a community’s
distinctive character: The unique character of any town or region is
what people love about it, and what tourists come to visit. Richard
Moe, president of the National Historic Preservation Trust, says,
“When people go on vacation they generally seek out destinations that
offer them the sense of being someplace, not just anyplace.”
4.Local business owners invest in community: People who own local
businesses live in the community, are less likely to leave, and are
more invested in the community’s future.
5.Customer service is better: Local businesses often hire people with
more specific product expertise for better customer service.
6.Competition and diversity lead to more choices: 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.
7.Local businesses have less environmental impact: Locally owned
businesses can make more local purchases, 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.
8.Local businesses’ public benefits far outweigh their public costs:
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.
9.Local businesses encourages investment in the community: A growing
body of economic research shows that in an increasingly homogenized
world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest in
and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses
and distinctive character.
10.Local businesses give more support to nonprofits: Nonprofit
organizations receive an average 350 percent greater support from
local business owners than they do from non-locally owned businesses.
Can you think of anything else? Let us know.