Local Community - Local Economy

Local Economy

According to Washington State’s Sustain South Sound organization, the top ten reasons to buy locally are:

1. Too strengthen local economy: Studies have shown that buying from an independent, locally owned business, significantly raises the number of times your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms—continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community.
2. Increase jobs: Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally in the United States of America.
3. Encourage local prosperity: 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.
4. Reduce 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 means contributing less to greenhouse gas emissions, sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution.
5. Support community groups: Non-profit organizations receive an average 250% more support from smaller business owners than they do from large businesses.
6. Keep your community unique: Where we shop, where we eat and have fun—all of it makes our community home.
7. Get better service: Local businesses often hire people with a better understanding of the products they are selling and take more time to get to know customers.
8. Invest in community: Local businesses are owned by people who live in the community, are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the community’s future.
9. Put your taxes to good use: 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.
10. Buy what you want, not what someone wants you to buy: 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.