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The Power of Local
Local businesses are educating communities, changing economic policies, and even outperforming chain competitors.
The 2009 holiday season was a tough one for retail businesses. In November, their sales increased just 1.8 percent over low 2008 numbers-failing to keep pace with inflation. December was worse, with sales actually falling three tenths of a percent from 2008.
City Feed and Supply, a grocery and deli in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, advertises the fact that its owners and suppliers are local. (Photo by Steve Garfield)
But in more than a hundred communities across North America,
independent community-based businesses had a more positive story to
tell. A nationwide survey of more than 1,800 independent businesses by
the Institute for Local Self-Reliance
(ILSR) found them outperforming chain competitors. Most notably, the
survey found independent retailers in communities with active "Buy
Independent" or "Buy Local" campaigns reported an increase in holiday
sales three times stronger (up three percent) than those in cities
without such campaigns (up one percent).
Given the current inflation rate of 2.7 percent, the benefit of such campaigns could mean the difference between success and failure for many store owners. "Amid the worst downturn in more than 60 years, independent businesses are succeeding by emphasizing their community roots and local ownership," says Stacy Mitchell, who executed the survey.
Jennifer Rockne directs the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), a nonprofit organization supporting 70 "Independent Business Alliances" across North America. She concurs with Mitchell, saying "When executed well, these campaigns are making a huge difference for local businesses and their communities."
The increased interest in buying local isn't lost on store owners. In a recent survey of its members, the Portland Independent Business and Community Alliance in Maine found 84 percent of its member businesses reported its "Buy Indie / Buy Local" campaign and related activities had positively impacted their business-that number has increased with each year.
Critics of "go local" movements warn that buying local deprives people in the Global South of jobs that could lift them out of poverty. But are multinationals really helping?
The ILSR survey respondents hail from communities of widely varying size, geography and political leanings, but share an important quality. Like Portland, they gain support from AMIBA or the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and engage in year-round, long-term community education that goes beyond mere consumer choices to focus on local independent business.
Mitchell and Rockne view many "buy local" campaigns started by government entities or chambers of commerce with some skepticism. "Many are launched without long-term commitment and are motivated by desire to boost city sales tax revenues, not concern for local entrepreneurs or community character," warns Mitchell, who detailed the escalating problem of "local washing" last year. The term describes campaigns by some cities, chambers of commerce, and corporate chains to define a "local" business as merely a nearby location without regard to the crucial distinction between local and corporate ownership.
Rockne questions whether such campaigns can yield measurable impact and notes a key framing issue. "While we ask people to shift more of their spending to local independents, consumer choices alone cannot halt many of our destructive environmental, social and business trends," he says. "We need to exercise our power as citizens as well."
Why? Countless chains benefit from tax loopholes, subsidies, federal handouts and other preferential treatment that undermines fair competition and handicaps community-based businesses. Both ILSR and AMIBA help citizens to reverse such destructive government action and advance myriad pro-local measures, from local purchasing and contracting preferences to policies that promote neighborhood-scale building and prevent big box sprawl.
AMIBA is walking the talk of democratic action as one of four organizations to launch Free Speech for People, a coalition gathering support for a constitutional amendment to overrule Citizens United v FEC. The recent Supreme Court ruling granted corporations the power to spend unlimited company funds in efforts to elect or defeat judicial and political candidates. While recognizing the primary threat to our Constitution, indie business advocates also worry because, even prior to this ruling, corporate chains had little trouble translating their wealth into political favors such as those noted above.
AMIBA's presence in the coalition has helped curtail previously routine media references to the Roberts Court as "pro-business" and has created some surprisingly honest reporting in major business news outlets. "High Court Wallops Small Business" was the title of a recent Kiplinger's brief on the case.
While Rockne embraces this role, she focuses on the core mission of helping people to effectively execute local campaigns. She expects to see 100 Independent Business Alliances by year's end.
Mitchell believes the recession creates added opportunity.
"Recycling capital locally by spending and investing more with local
independents is powerful economic stimulus for communities,"
she notes. "As the evidence builds that Buy Independent and Buy Local
campaigns can actually shift consciousness and purchasing choices,
we're seeing interest and results grow even more rapidly."
Jeff Milchen wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Jeff is a co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance, which hosts its second international gathering for advocates of community-based enterprise in Tampa April 8-11.
Interested?
Slow Money: Bringing Money Back to Earth Interview with Woody Tasch
Is there such a thing as money that's too fast? Slow Money founder Woody Tasch says yes, and he's trying to slow money down by connecting investors to their local economies.
Growing Local: Interview with Michelle Long
By working with local businesses, Michelle Long helped make Bellingham,
Washington a national leader in urban sustainability. With BALLE, she's
taking her vision to cities around North America.
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43 Comments so far
Show AllOh, I think I get it.
Is this what the TV advertising means when it says:
"Now available at your local Walmart"?
If anyone here has tried to open a music coffee house or venue might remember how the boys from ASCAP, and then BMI, in any order, come to shake you down for thousands a year for the privilege of allowing live music by local musicians to play... and even if you do all your own songs they will still scare the owners and artists and that is why we don't have a real grass roots music industry anymore... the corporations have taken over.
In other words they want and GET exclusive payment from you when your local artists promote big artists by singin ANY of the tunes you bought or heard on the radio or even if they don't do any cover tunes..... if it is all original you still must pay.
What a great system... the mob controls the world.
Hey Glover - I'm a life long musician totally familiar with ASCAP, BMI, and the Extortion Racket AKA Musician's Union - let's talk. Contact me at lydiandominant.com
Well, thanks this has been goin on down here in West central florida for years and I would think the Union would know that this keeps new clubs and concerts and even non profits from opening a new music scene without throwing thousands to the BMI ASCP boys.. But The music business is crazy. Florida is not union friendly and I wonder if other cities have to pay BmI and ASCAP a licence to play music. If War is a racket, why not show biz?
If your town does not get hit with this, you are lucky....
Interesting. My community has a lovely locally owned coffee house, which roasts its own coffee and also provides a venue for independent (mostly local) artists. This is the first I've heard of this shakedown. Please enlighten me. I support local music as much as possible. Haven't bought a CD in a store in years but own hundreds of them purchased direct from the artists!
You have a good local scene!
Yes- there are lots of banks in my town with billboards saying to bank "local." AT some point, though, the localization movement will need to define what we mean by locally-owned.
We also need an information resource that makes it easy for conscious consumers find locally-owned businesses. It needs to be more than the "buy local" members--there are many more locally-owned businesses that have chosen not to be the required dues to be listed as "buy local." Using a business model that requires membership it does not serve the larger community--but many buy local organizations have adopted that model as a way to survive.
In Portland, a free online community resource is up and running that highlights locally-owned businesses--www.lokiloka.com. It is not limited to "members only."
Whether that free model can survive remains to be seen.
One starting point for finding local banking is the website moveyourmoney.info, which originated with the Huffington Post. I do not know the criteria they used for the listings.
Joe
"define what we mean by locally-owned"
Locally-owned means owned by a small local producer, whos ambition is only to serve the locals. So you know and trust the vendor. The down-side is this cuts into our choice. But consumer choice has in the past meant irresponsibility. So if we want to change, and become responsible citizens, then we have to seek out, or demand, vendors who we know/trust to be responsible, and help build an infrastructure to allow small local vendors to provide some reasonable choice.
Another facet of localism shifting the power from the supply-side to the demand-side. The consumer gives the orders and the producer supplies the demand. It's common sense. Now this requires the people start thinking again, exercising their imaginations again. Deciding what's good for them. This will create a demand for an infrastructure that the people can use to refine their demands to serve their own better interests.
So there's three things we think about when we formulate a demand: Our own needs, the needs of the community, and the needs of the biosphere. This process can be streamlined.
There is one way to bring our economy back to life and that would be americans buying made in usa products. Think how many more jobs that would create if that happened. Bring the corporations back to america that left so they could pay cheaper labor. Also what ever happened to recyling in the community. Recycling trucks used to pick up recycled goods. Where did they go? More jobs lost. Buying and selling China's goods is doing nothing but hurting this country in the long run. There is a saying that i read some where that says THE WAY YOU DEFEAT AMERICA IS NOT BY WAR,BUT IN THE POCKETBOOK. That is what China is doing to us very slowly and in time they will win if we continue on this path to bankrupcy, if we are not there already. Is it to late America?
Excellent post.
Its not too late at all.
I'd say a strong movement of independence from Federal Government/corporaions is underway.
Keep on keeping on! Under way making way!
I'd say a strong movement of independence from Federal Government/corporaions is underway.
Keep on keeping on! Under way making way!
I would love to see a well coordinated National Strike. If everyone stayed home for a couple of days, no school, no work, no banking, no buying, no selling, no anything except for emergency services and food pantries. If everyone just stopped feeding the beast that is bleeding us dry if might just make a difference. But, in the meantime, doing business locally as much as possible would certainly make a world of difference, not to mention that it would save on gas. It is much easier in rural communities with access to locally grown produce and many areas are already establishing community gardens and farmers markets. Also, second hand and consignment shops are another way to keep the money flow at home.
Annabelle, you rock !
>>I would love to see a well coordinated National Strike. If everyone stayed home for a couple of days, no school, no work, no banking, no buying, no selling, no anything except for emergency services and food pantries. If everyone just stopped feeding the beast that is bleeding us dry if might just make a difference.<<
Oh, be still my heart ! I have been thinking this for some time. A consumers revolt. Too, too much apathy. Everyone needs to be angry all at once and all at the same thing and then take it down. I always thought during the gas price craze a couple years ago, we could unite and systematically kill the big beasts and the small ones will take notice and come into line, or they will be next. Start with, lets say......Exxon. Any Exxon owned stations will not receive a dime of business for a month. When they start to squeal, move on to Shell or BP. As the dollar is still the loudest speaker, we would take turns and force them to come into line. If everyone going to Home Depot, for plumbing parts would suddenly only buy from Joe the Plumber, he would rise to greatness and the message sent. Can this be pulled off ?? Darn I just woke up. Where are those sleeping pills ?
How could this be organized?
Joe
Well, again, Too, too much apathy. Everyone needs to be angry all at once and all at the same thing and then take it down. The internet is my only logical response ! I wish I had the connections and savvy to organize said revolt. I wish someone would whisper it on the wind and it catch fire among the pissed off millions. Does anyone else feel helpless ? Does anyone else feel like they wish some outspoken celebrity or otherwise well respected patriotic fly in the ointment would take up the call and spearhead such revolts. I am sure in the backs of our minds, we all know the power of united we stand, but who shall stand first ? We are divided and we are falling ! I would love to rally behind the flag of common people with common goals. Every thing I get sent to me asks for donations to power the fight. Somehow I don't think giving away my money to random and unknown entities is the answer.
I do not know the answer either. But I hope we all keep thinking about how to do these things and keep talking to others. Maybe not about a specific tactic, but about the situation, the fact that nobody will save us if we do not act to save ourselves. I believe that if each of us is prepared to go in this direction, it will happen. We are building to a critical mass. It may take time, but it seems inevitable with all the things that are happening.
"There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come." Victor Hugo
Joe
I'm an American living in Canada and have been doing the personal is political thing for a while, one strategy of which was to shun all things not made in the US or Canada. Pretty impossible, but when I do find such oddities I snap them up. Believe me, they are few and far between.
The other troubling thing is that here in Canada we have provinces (with the undying support of the federal government) so on the corporate band-wagon that they are agreeing to trade deals that gives corporations priority to bid on provincial and municipal public spending contracts to such a degree that it can restrict and curtail municipal and provincial abilities to promote local services and products.
This direction that governments all over the world are taking to make deals of this type part of the WTO rules for international trade is so huge and so pervasive, it's like a cancer that is eating us up from the inside out. I'm fairly pessimistic about our chances of turning this tide that is about to become a tsunami. It is all part of the neurotic psychotic mindset that drives the bail-out of "too-big-to-fail" financial institutions and places Wall Street at the centre of how we do business. We are insane and the small glimpses of sanity that I see in groups like The Transition Movement, Organic Farmers movements,Buy Local movements or the myriad small groups who are working to correct this doesn't seem to me to be enough to save us from ourselves. Oh please, someone tell me I am wrong.
Buying local produce is a silly idea. The carbon footprint is just too high when compared to large farms which may not be close to you. Local farms by nature will have to be small and thus do not have the economies of scales that large farms enjoy.
If you are promoting local produce as a means to promote local jobs then my all means go ahead. But don't tell me that it will reduce the carbon footprint.
If you are interested in reducing carbon footprint just consume less.
trbmkr
You obviously haven't considered the fuel and trucks it takes to deliver produce to the stores.
To pronounce buying local as "silly" is a bit short sighted I think. It has many benefits. Better produce for one. Fewer chemicals used for another. It reduces the price control to the local level and retains money in the local economy. Jobs are another by product of buying locally.
Even when you include the fuel for transportation large farms will have lower carbon foot print than local small arms.
Large farms will also end up using less chemicals (fertilizers) per pound of produce just because they have better farming technologies and enjoy economies of scale.
Buying local is a scam. If you want to reduce the carbon footprint just consume less or better still become a vegetarian.
trbmkr
I'm not even sure the carbon footprint is that important and I have NO interest in becoming a vegetarian.
What I am sure of is buying locally when you can provides the benefits I mentioned before. You also forgot to include the costs of the illegal labor these large farms use and abuse.
Taste a locally grown tomato as opposed to your force fed corporate tomato and tell me which tastes best and I can assure you from testing which has more nutrition.
No scam, good economy, good taste, good nutrition.
hogwash - small farms can utilize techniques and do without much of the machinery and the commercially produced chemicals (that in and of themselves create problems) that large commercial farmers require. When considering the production and use of machinery and chemicals, GM crops, subsidies, transportation and the deleterious effect on agrarian-based culture, there is nothing absolute or conclusive about your supposition at all.
Economies of scale, especially where commercial farming is concerned, can also be considered a scam, because it is based on economic cost and currency, which does not properly consider the full costs to society, micro or macro, or to the planet. There is growing awareness for the relationship of the laws of conservation to economics that are completely disregarded when talking about economies of scale.
http://balancinglife.blogspot.com/2005/10/economics-of-conservation.html.
And the most important point of all is how buying local marginalizes the influence and control of the corporatacracy whom you obviously support.
We see you.
Add the that fact big agribusiness is producing foodstuffs that have been genetically altered to the equation.
Agreed on all points. The transportation uses fuel and takes time during which things sit in storehouses and depots and lose nutrients. Also, economies of scale in mono-crop farming lead to massive uses of insecticides, herbicides, genetically modified seed. That in turn enriches the Monsantos and Cargills who want to control the food industry.
The living conditions of animals in factory farms can make you sick, both physically and spiritually. The hormones to induce growth, the antibiotics to make up for the overcrowding and filth. Animal feces runoff from huge feedlots pollutes the water, whereas the waste from a few animals scattered here and there can be absorbed into the local soils. Economies of scale are not strictly applicable to biological situations. Balance, cycling and quality are important. These things work better when the farming is smaller and more diverse.
But the giant farming industry makes it hard for small farmers to survive. Farmers live on a very small margin, so they can be driven out of business by giant corporations who can dump inferior food on the market and charge a few cents less.
And I also like the idea of keeping wealth in the community rather than sending it to some big international agribusiness which uses its power to suppress wages, and sometimes even to overthrow governments. One-cash-crop economies are a source of poverty and malnutrition in the third world. The are based on concentration of land in a few hands. They are the stomping grounds of local kleptocrats in league with international agribusiness. Think Zelaya. I cannot look at a banana without thinking of how Chiquita (or however it is now rebranded) helped to oust the democratically elected president, the trigger having been a raise in the minimum wage for fruit pickers. Although it is hard to avoid, I do not like to stock my kitchen with the fruits of injustice.
I am sure that local orchards are not perfect, but I would rather eat an organic New York State apple and support my neighbors, since I do have the luxury now of spending a couple of extra cents. Anyone who can, should.
Joe
Why do you worry about genetically modified seeds? The whole concept of domestication is a process of genetic modification starting from the wild variety of the plant and animal. It is just that thousands of years ago people did not know about genetics so they did the modification by trial and error. If you are against genetically modified seeds then consistency would demand that you stop eating domesticated plants and animals. Eat only wild plant and animals.
Sure factory farms are cruel to animals. But do you think that free range cage free animals do not feel the pain when they are killed? If animal pain concerns you then become a vegan. Else just eat the factory farmed animal. At least you will have a lower carbon foot print.
If you are bothered about the profits of large corporations then increase the taxes on them. Besides, what is wrong if the local farmers are driven out of work by corporations with a better cost structure? Just increase unemployment benefits or make it permanent.
Speaking of a madness to method...
"Besides, what is wrong if the local farmers are driven out of work by corporations with a better cost structure? Just increase unemployment benefits or make it permanent."
You really believe someting like this?
"You really believe someting like this?"
Absolutely. Why are people concerned about unemployment? Because it comes with lack of pay and benefits. Increase the corporate taxes and support unemployment benefits. Problem solved.
And when the Corporations can no longer pay to support all the unemployed, what then? Problem back, ten fold!
Nope. That will automatically result in a optimal size of the corporation and optimal unemployment rate, with the unemployed supported by tax dollars.
Ahhh... the invisible hand of the market will appear and correct all.
Joe
Whats the difference if the unemployed have benefits?
Consume less? Absolutely. But if I choose to consume apples that come from New Zealand rather than from my home state, I am also consuming a lot more carbon.
The economies of scale, as you suggest, don't really make a difference here.
The point about buying local is that not only does it have the potential for reducing the amount of carbon because of transportation, it also supports small farmers, artisans and small businesses. It helps people live their dreams--of doing work that matters and doing work that enables them to escape the 9-5 routine.
When I buy a product or service produced my neighbor, I am helping them as well as getting a product or service that I can trust.
Buying local is more than about reducing our carbon footprint--although that is a important. There is also a larger point to buying local--it is part of the way to transform our local economies so they are more stable and sustainable than what we currently have.
Thanks for the reality check
Agreed.
Joe
Today I went shopping. First I stopped at Firestone and bought a new set of tires and had an oil and filter change. No options for locally produced goods there. While that was being done I walked over to a nearby sporting goods store and bought a pair of hiking boots made in China for $29.99. A pair of similar locally produced boots made by Danner would have cost me...$129.99. Next I went shopping for food and had better results. Honey, sour cream, half and half, and I think the mushrooms were produced locally and several other things were from California which is a bordering State. Something to keep in mind when advocating locally produced goods is that manufacturing requires large amounts of energy. China burns coal to produce this energy and then sends the manufactured goods to us. If we want to manufacture locally we would have to produce the energy to do that. Would we want to burn more coal? Or like China would we start to build more nuclear plants? All of this is nice to think about but the fact is that our whole civilization is heading for collapse because it is unsustainable. We may be able to keep it going for another twenty years before it goes into terminal phase...or we may not.
Another thing - we have to start being reasonable about safety. It is one thing to require certified proof of product safety from a large operation, and I am all for that.
But when a small hand made wooden toy operation has to engage an expensive testing lab to certify that the beeswax they use to polish the toys is safe, you can drive them out of business. We should try to build in some common-sense way to certify the quality of a small local enterprise.
Perhaps I sound like I want to go back to some mythical time in which small business run by benevolent elves and family farms run by Laura Ingalls Wilder made life wonderful. I don't believe that ever existed. Just that local enterprise adds vitality and color and opportunity and jobs to the economy. It leads to a richer community life. We need tax and support policies that remove the advantages of giant international businesses and even the playing field for small local business.
For other things, like national health, I am a stone commie.
Joe
jclientelle
I believe you simply realize what some don't seem to. That there is a limit to the extent you can protect everyone from everything. Its like the speed limit, how many lives would be saved if we brought it down to 30? Thousands I'm sure, but no one would ever get anywhere and the cost would greatly increase.
There has to be some degree of rationality or you simply end up trying to create an unobtainable Utopiain vision.
I see lot of comments about the outrageous profits made by Monsanto, Cargill, and Chiquita?
How about the outrageous profits made by Whole Foods, the corporation that popularized organic food and made it a household concept?
I am the only one who mentioned Monsanto and Cargill and Chiquita. But you know the phenomenon that your ears perk up when you hear someone mention the name of your lover. You are relentless in your apology for big mono-crop agra regardless of any evidence to the contrary. What's the motivation for such passionate single -minded devotion to large scale international industrial farming? It's a bit kinky.
Joe
Well said!
THIS IS CAPITALISM.
Local, local , local, power of the allmighty community, not some giant multination company giving jobs to some peasants in China