The Buy Local movement continued to take off – and it is happening just about everywhere.
It is not just in the country that the idea of buying local is catching on. The Local First movement, steadily gaining popularity in larger communities across North America, aims to give a much-needed boost to local independent retailers and producers this holiday season.
Lately, even Toronto is getting involved in buy local campaigns.
Research on the benefits of Local First campaigns shows that they effectively increase market share for independent business. Across Canada and the U.S. last year, many local store owners saw unusual and very welcome sales gains at Christmas as a result of joining with other independent business owners in their region to celebrate the benefits of thinking local first.
"Some people think that local just means location, like the big box down the street," said Chris Lowry, director of a local, sustainable business network called Green Enterprise Toronto (GET). "But local is really all about local ownership that helps to keep regional economies strong."
"We encourage Toronto residents to support their local BIAs by shopping locally. By supporting our main streets, we maintain strong and viable communities, said John Kiru, executive director of the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas. It consists of 68 BIAs representing more that 27,000 business and property owners.
"The Local First movement is catching on in communities across North America, and now we are introducing it to Toronto consumers and retailers," explained Lowry. "More and more people understand that supporting independent businesses is essentially voting with your dollars for a healthy local economy."
Why? Independent businesses are more accountable to customers and the community, ensure the unique character of a neighbourhood, are more likely to support local charities and have greater direct control over the environmental impact of their businesses.
Supporting independent businesses creates local jobs, preserves economic diversity, safeguards the environment and contributes to a just global economy.
"We are hearing a lot about the benefits of shopping for local food and local wines," said Lowry. "Many of us don’t realize that the purchase of a VQA Ontario wine puts as much as four to six times more money back into the local economy of southern Ontario than an imported wine.
“That’s astonishing information about consumer power. Now, the same economic multiplier effect also applies to the price of a locally-made Ninutik maple candy, a local jar of Kozlik’s mustard, a locally made toy, or soap bar, local furniture, local clothing designs, a local Ecojot notebook, all kinds of excellent goods that are actually made here in the Toronto region. Essentially, you vote with your dollars to support your own local jobs and public services when you buy local first."
Locally produced goods and services mean less transportation. The less burning of fuel to get what you need, the better.
Money spent at locally-owned and independent businesses goes around longer in the local economy. As local business people pay for all kinds of local services, spend their profits, and pay taxes locally, local businesses yield two to four times the economic benefit to the local resident, as comparable non-local businesses. That means more local income, wealth, and jobs.
Outside companies might even seem to have a local hook and do hire some local people, but their revenue and profit goes straight back to their corporate parents. Big box stores are steamrolling their way into cities and towns throughout Canada, pushing down wages and forcing small, local businesses to close because they can’t compete with those mega-companies’ predatory practices.
But there’s something that every consumer can do. During the week of Dec. 1 to 7, shoppers can vote with their dollars in favor of locally-owned, independent businesses.
A study in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood found that local businesses re-circulate 70% more money locally than chain stores do, per square foot occupied.
The San Francisco retail diversity study found that a slight shift in consumer purchasing behavior – diverting just 10% of purchases from national chain stores to locally-owned businesses – would, each year, create 1,300 new jobs in the city and yield nearly $200 million in incremental economic activity.
"There is now overwhelming evidence that local businesses are the key to pumping up local income, wealth, jobs, and taxes," says Michael Shuman, an economist who works closely with BALLE.
Green Enterprise Toronto is a local network of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, or BALLE, with local business networks in 65 communities in the US and Canada.
Shuman concluded, "The more residents, businesses, and city officials support locally owned businesses, the greater the economic rewards."
