Ten Reasons to Think Local First
Think Local First comes from a very strong rural tradition of self reliance. Its about villages and towns, resourceful people , agricultural landscapes and farmers who bartered, traded, basically took care of each other. It stems from the knowledge that real community wealth is knowing that the heart and talents of neighbors and friends are interdependent- reflected in a circle of trade and relationship that makes this a good place to live.
What sets THINK LOCAL FIRST communities apart is that we love local character, we recognize authenticity, we know the name of the producer and the supplier, and we support each other.
TEN REASONS WHY THINK LOCAL FIRST matters to our economy:
1. Local Character and Prosperity
In an increasingly “one size fits all” world, communities that preserve their one-of-a kind business and distinctive character have an economic advantage.
2. Community Wealth and Well-being
Locally owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a web of economic and social relationships and contributing to local causes. One study has found that small businesses actually give twice as much per employee to charitable causes as do large companies. (US Small Business Administartion, October 1991)
3. Entrepreneurship
Once a nation of store owners and shop keepers we are rapidly becoming a nation of clerks with devastating social and economic consequences . 90% of the new jobs created in rural communities in the last two decades have come from entrepreneurship- a large percentage of those from women owned businesses. Entrepreneurship fuels the innovation and prosperity of rural American and serves as a key way for families to move out of low wage jobs into middle class business ownership. Luckily Jefferson County has twice the per capita entrepreneurship as the State but buying local provides critical start up financing and opportunity to move from a good idea to a business that supports local employment.
4. Local Decision Making
Local ownership increase the chance that important decisions are going to be made by local people who live in the community and who will feel the impact of those decisions.
5. Keep Dollars in the Local Economy
Compared to chain stores, locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local economy, providing local employment, investing in local resources, enriching the entire community.
6. Better Jobs and Wages.
Locally owned businesses create more jobs and may provide better wages and benefits than chains do. In a l998 economic survey of Jefferson County employers reported that )))))% of them provided insurance benefits. “These are the mothers of the children that my children play with, how could I not try to provide them medical insurance”said one local business owner.
7. More Efficient use of Taxes and Lower Public Costs
Local stores in local town centers require significantly less expensive infrastructure than chain stores and strip shopping malls. Costs for local street, water and sewer, police and fire protection and police availability only gets worse as box stores or strip development occurs
8. Innovation
A marketplace of hundreds of small choices, individualized inventory, and innovation is the best way to ensure low prices over the long term. When there is only one or two local banks, or consumers have little to no choice of local markets then prices increase and standardization occurs. The growth of national chains which originally promised more choice has actually reduced, not increased, competition which has only been a basis of the American economic growth.
9. Produce Diversity
A multitude of small businesses, each selecting produces based, not on a national sales plan, but on their unique community needs, own interests, and the wants of their local customers, results in and guarantees a much borader range of product choices.
10. Environmental Benefits
Think Local first supports small locally owned stores which sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers which in turn result in limiting sprawl, loss of open space, reduce automobile use and reduce related problems such as storm water, loss of habitat and air and water pollution. Retail space in the last twenty years has tripled. That’s acres of parking lots and miles of roads. Supporting local businesses reduces pressure on our community and other regional centers to stop parking lot construction which is probably one of the most harmful land uses in any watershed. Recent research is suggesting that when the amount of impervious surface (roads, parking lots, buildings) in a watershed reaches 15% there is severe water quality harm. (Schuler, Tom, Center for Watershed Protection).