Buy Local

• Promoting buying local whenever possible, and being local by supporting local independently-owned businesses.

"BUY LOCAL FIRST!" refers to a commitment to the community. Rather than simply promoting "buying local," the campaign suggests our larger role as stewards. By thinking local first, we can make choices that have dramatic impact on our community, our economy, and our environment. While it will rarely be possible to buy everything we need or use from local independent businesses, we are advocating for people to first think local in order to maximize the impact of daily actions and purchasing decisions.

Compared to national competitors, local independent businesses return more money to the local economy and give greater support to local non-profit organizations. They are better positioned to respond to the special needs of the community and more invested in its future.

Local, independently owned businesses are the backbone of an economy, the lifeblood of a community. By increasing the number of independent, local-to-local economic transactions, we can:

• Support local entrepreneurs

• Sustain family businesses

• Create local jobs that stay in our community

• Have greater control over environmental impacts

• Increase sales and tax receipts to hopefully finance schools, hospitals, police, arts, transportation, and open spaces

• Maintain a unique sense of place, directly contributing to what will keep our home place alive and special in the long-run

• Maximize the economic multiplier (that means every expenditure of a rand generates more than a rand's worth of activity and cascades into a larger number of transactions that enrich the community). Choosing local over non-local has 2-3 times more financial impact in our community, promotes more reinvestment locally, creates quality jobs, and encourages more donations to local charities and causes.