Several
studies have shown that when you buy from an independent, locally owned
business, rather than a nationally owned business, significantly more of your
money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers
and farms -- continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community.
The Civic Economics' study for the City of Austin, Texas in
2002 found $100 spent at the local independent retailers in the study generated
$45 of secondary local spending compared to $13 in secondary spending projected
per $100 spent at a Borders Books and Music store. These studies measured the
direct and indirect impacts to determine the base level local economic activity
of a purchase made at a chain and a local independent business.
So what does that matter to us
here in the Sauk Valley?
Janna
and I rolled around with this thought and below is our conversation.
Janna: Shopping at the
Big Box stores in our community is, to a certain extent, unavoidable. You
gotta buy toilet paper somewhere....right? I have also made a conscious
decision to be more aware of what I’m purchasing and where and to get the items
I can get locally, locally. For instance the Twin Cities Farmers Market - it’s open year-round, and a great source of fresh veggies and meat -
often less expensive than what I can get it for at the Big Box, and I know where it
came from.
Lisa: There’s a
moral quandary here isn’t there?
Yes.
Most of us know someone who works, or has worked at one of the local Big
Boxes. And the Sauk Valley is blessed with a distribution center for one
of them which does provided much needed, good jobs to the community. We’re also
blessed that our local Wal-Mart’s DO give back to the community through
donations to organizations and events such as Relay for Life, United Way and
others.
I agree with you that we don’t want to get into a Wal-Mart
bashing conversation here. It is easy to talk about “Big Boxes” as these
impersonal giant corporations that do harm to our communities. But when
you consider they are comprised of our neighbors it gets harder to point the
finger.
Exactly!
It’s tough when we have so many great little shops in our community that often get overlooked for that Big
Box though. It’s too easy for one stop shopping, than to take the time -
which I know is scarce for most - to make an extra stop or two.
I think the thing here is to be mindful. Maybe if we
try to stop when we get in that automatic type thinking that would help. Like for
example, I need hardware often for framing. Instead of jumping into the
car and mindlessly driving to Menards, maybe if I can just stop in that moment,
and ask the question, “Where else could I go”. Maybe then, I could slowly
start to nurture the idea of “shopping small”, and make it more of a habit.
I think habit is one of the biggest culprits here. Big boxes do a
really good job of ingraining their brands into our minds. Small shops
have smaller marketing resources and as a result, may not come to mind as
readily in those moments.
True.
And through SVSS, as well as events like Second Saturdays and Fourth Fridays, we are trying to increase the Community’s awareness of the smaller
businesses in the Sauk Valley and what they have to offer.
Those activities, and others like them, help bring small businesses to mind more readily in those "where to go" moments.
It
takes a conscious effort to stop and think about your shopping habits on a
daily basis. And on another level, keeping your shopping local versus
going out of town. I know we were guilty of always heading out to
Rockford or the Quad Cities to go to Borders or the like for our book shopping.
Now that we’ve come to know Books on First in Dixon, I can’t imagine
doing that. If they don’t have what we’re looking for, they will order it
and I’ll have it in a matter of days.
I
think that makes my point. It’s a habit as you state, but also, when the
community starts talking about our small businesses, and promoting them by word of mouth,
things can really start to change.
I know
through Fourth Fridays I have heard comments more than once from individuals
that “I didn’t know this store was here.” It's taking that moment to stop
and notice the great small businesses that the Sauk Valley has to offer, or
that certain stores offer far more than meets the eye.
That’s
one of the cool things about Second Saturdays and Fourth Fridays. The community has an opportunity to come
out and check out a store or an artist they may never had opportunity to see
before.
We’ve
gotten off track here a bit from our original point of the financial benefits
to the community of shopping local as well. Shopping local returns more
money to our community. The owners are our neighbors and friends.
They purchase local supplies.
Think of Jackie Payne over at Bushel Basket. What did
she say? I think it was that 75% of her business sales income gets
recirculated back into the community. That is an amazing percentage.
Jackie, did I get my numbers right?
Just imagine if all of us made just a wee little change in
habit. What would happen if each of us decided to swap out just one
purchase normally made at a big box for a small independent retailer? Can
you imagine?
