Shop Locally

Everyone is feeling the pinch these days, and even a brief review of the news is enough to make you want to batten down the hatches - and forget about buying anything except the bare necessities at the lowest possible prices.

Yet during these difficult times, small businesses are the only source of new jobs!  As a small business owner, you can be proud of the contribution companies like yours are making to our economic recovery. 

As a consumer, are you making it a point to buy from other small businesses? 

Here are some great reasons to shop at local small businesses (tell your friends!):

• Bringing needed goods and services into communities
• Keeping wealth close to home - dollars spent in locally owned businesses have three times the impact on local communities as dollars spent at national chains.  Simply put, local businesses spend more money locally than do non-local companies.  They tend to have local management, use local business services, advertise locally, and enjoy profits locally.  A 2004 study of Andersonville in Chicago revealed that a dollar spent in a local restaurant had 25% more economic impact than a chain, and the local advantage was 63% more for retail and 90% more for local services.
• Funding city services through sales tax
• Creating jobs
• Sustaining vibrant, compact walkable town centers, reducing extensive transportation, and reducing pollution 
• Creating quality and affordability - competition is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices
• Protecting local character