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Buy Local (Members Only)

Throughout the U.S., many small businesses are banning together to impress upon local businesses, governmental agencies and non-profit organizations the benefits of buying from a local company vs. a “Big Box” company which has its headquarters outside the area.  All businesses are affected by the national stores-Starbucks, Home Depot, Office Depot, Sears, Staples, Wal-Mart, Kiewit Construction-to just name a few.
 
Why do individuals, companies and organizations purchase from these national stores vs. the local merchant? There are several reasons:

 

  • Because of the inability of most local merchants to purchase advertising in large quantities, they often cannot promote their message broadly to the consuming public or businesses.
  •  The perception that local companies “must be” more expensive.
  •   A “small business prejudice” that assumes local merchants’ prices must be higher and their selection less broad than available at large national companies.
  • The general public is not well informed about either the special service and other capabilities of small local businesses, or the substantially greater economic benefits to their local community of buying from them.

 

How does a small local business overcome these hurdles?  There are many ways, beginning with the individual company, expanding to a consortium of local businesses working together and finally reaching the level of promoting a common “buy local” theme among the small business community in many industries nationwide.

 

No matter what approach(s) you take, the message needs to be the same. IT IS BETTER FOR YOUR COMMUNITY’S ECONOMIC GROWTH WHEN YOU BUY LOCAL.

 

 
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