Why Local Matters
The 9 key findings
to why local matters:
Recently, it seems that policies are benefiting larger corporations, although a growing volume of research is proving we should be doing just the opposite. We assume that shopping and supporting our local businesses is important to our community. But what are the measurable impacts that occur as a result? Well, we’re here to break it down for you! These nine key findings shine a light on why localized business is so important in supporting our economy, our culture, and our future. Let’s take a look…
Encourages Start-Ups and Existing Businesses
Strong Economic Returns
Increase in Jobs, Wages, and Benefits
Increased Donations for Community Groups
Better Public Services
Social and Civic Well-Being
Keeps Our Communities Unique
Better Selections, Prices, and Customer Service
Reduced Impact on the Environment
1. Encourages Start-Ups and Existing Businesses
Buying locally is a small commitment that can easily turn into a movement. By patronizing local shops and services, you’re investing in the imagination of your community. Where there is one great innovation, there are more ideas in the making.
A new business can be a catalyst for new jobs. Local economic growth can attract new talent who may in turn invest in start-ups of their own. The spark that one start-up creates can become a shift in the way an entire community operates.
2. Strong Economic Returns
Local businesses recirculate a greater share of every dollar, as they create locally-owned supply chains while investing in their employees. Simply put, when money is spent locally, it can be re-spent locally. This creates a positive chain reaction, where an increase of local economic activity yields more jobs, a stronger tax base, and more.
Small-scale, locally-owned businesses create communities that are more prosperous, connected, and generally better off across a wide range of metrics. When we patronize these independent shops and services rather than national chains, a significantly greater portion of our money is then cycled back through the local economy – to make purchases from our friends’ businesses, to aid our neighbors in need, and to support our local farms – ultimately strengthening the base of our whole community.
On average, when you spend $100 locally, $73 stays local, and $27 leaves. In contrast, if you shop at a non-local business, only $43 stays, while the remaining $57 leaves the local economy.
3. Increase in Jobs, Wages, and Benefits
Collectively, small local businesses are the largest employers in the United States. This means that there are more Americans working for businesses comprised of fewer than 100 employees than there are people employed by a larger company.
Research shows that small businesses employ more people per unit of sale. They also retain more employees during times of economic hardship, such as in a recession. This isn’t just an empty figure, either. Local businesses are more likely to retain workers because they have a genuine connection with their employees, whereas larger companies see their people as more dispensable.
While not feasible for every small business, there is evidence that locally-owned shops and services are linked to higher growth of income over time in comparison to big-box companies.
4. Increased Donations for Community Groups
Locally owned businesses contribute more to local charities, teams, events, and initiatives than any of their national counterparts.
Because they are owned by our own community members, local businesses have a real investment in the place you call home, meaning they are more likely to invest in what’s important to them. It also less likely to leave, as they are proven to be more committed to the neighbors they get to call friends, family, and peers.
When you buy locally, you’re not padding the pockets of big corporations. You’re helping families put food on the table, send their children to dance lessons and plan for their futures.
5. Better Public Services
While many types of shops and services generate revenue, it comes at a deficit to the community. Local businesses, however, generate more tax revenue for cities, with less cost.
Recent studies have suggested that local businesses generate the best net fiscal result, at a rate of about $326 per 1,000 square feet. The comparison to that of big-box retailers is astonishing: they generate a deficit of –$426 per 1,000 square feet.
One of the greatest factors of that negative impact is the costs incurred by travel, as big retailers have a much greater rate of spending on shipping from a much longer distance.
6. Social and Civic Well-Being
A thriving community with a variety of local businesses is proven to strengthen the middle class while also enriching the social capital, civic engagement, and general well-being of its people.
This comes in stark contrast to the presence of big-box retailers, who undermine social capital and civic participation.
7. Keeps Our Communities Unique
There is real magic that small businesses bring to a community, and a lack of them does not go unnoticed. They bring diversity to a town by ushering in folks with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. This range and wealth of familiarities can enrich, enliven, and engulf your community in culture it wouldn’t find anywhere else.
In addition to an uptick in diversity, studies show that small businesses help drive equality in a community.
8. Better Selections, Prices, and Customer Service
Communities are also benefitted by local shops knowing their town’s demographic. A college town is more likely to lean towards the needs of students, staff, and faculty, whereas a more rural area may be tailored to help support the farming community. Without local businesses, that tailored experience is often lost.
Additionally, local businesses often employ people with a wealth of knowledge about the products they sell. There is a richer experience in supporting a local shop or service as owners and employees not only feel passionate about what they do but also want to know the people who support them.
9. Reduced Impact on the Environment
You don’t have to look far to see why buying locally can benefit the environment.
There are a variety of transportation costs and environmental tolls each time you buy online, patronize a big-box retailer or purchase groceries from a chain. Transporting items from A to B is a massive contributing factor to pollution, so when the items you buy are produced down the street instead of across the country, you are helping reduce your environmental footprint.
In the case of food, there are additional benefits when you source locally. Produce grown by small local businesses is not only more likely to be seasonal – thereby saving on energy and water use – but also more nutritious, as it’s picked or used at peak ripeness, without having to take long transport time into consideration.
