KLKN-TV: News, Weather and Sports for Lincoln, NE; KLKNTV.comWhy You Should Buy From Your Local Business
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Of every $100 spent in a chain store, $14 goes back into the local economy. For a locally owned business, $45 goes back.
By Natalie Ermann Russell
In my house, the "New Oxford American Dictionary's" 2007 word of the year, locavore (someone dedicated to buying local foods), was lexicological inspiration: Why not stay local with all the other stuff we buy, too?
There are good reasons for buying local. It reduces the need for shipping, which reduces pollution, and it supports the local community. "A study we did found that for every $100 spent in a chain store, $14 went back into the local economy. For a locally owned business, it was $45," says Stacy Mitchell, author of "Big-Box Swindle" and researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. "Locally owned businesses buy a lot of services from other local businesses. So by buying from one local business, you're not only supporting that business, you're supporting other local businesses."
To find local shops, farms, services and so on, sites like a nationwide directory of such sites can be found on livingeconomies.org (click on "Find a network").
With resources like these, I could try going local for everything. "It's not possible to buy every single thing you need from a local producer or vendor, but we advocate that people look locally first," says Ann Bartz with Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, an organization that is growing along with the trend, tripling in size over the past three years. Issue Date: December 28, 2008
