Local Spending, Local Economy

When you see this logo, either as it is or embedded on a poster or in a blog like this, know that the business is local. The 3/50 Project advocates for all locally owned businesses across the nation, and we love them. Visit www.the350project.net and learn more about the power of shopping locally. Download the app for your phone, and start seeking out locals, for everyone's sake.

People don't make specific decisions to NOT support local, independent businesses. I mean, I truly hope they don't. No, people simply go where the marketing dollars direct them, and where concentrastions of retail abound. They simply see local businesses as alternatives, especially if the locals are well executed, professional operations.

When local stores are selected, though, more money stays in the local economy. Local companies utilize the services of local CPAs, advertising specialists, attornesy and other service providers. Local stores are significantly more engaged in helping schools and local charities. The money that is spent in a local store, therefore, is reinvested in the community. This simply isn't true about national chains, so when a decision is made to spend money at a national, the result is a proven reduction in local economic activity.

The good news is that it is extraordinarily easy to make an immediate and lasting difference. It starts with the realization that a purchase has a range of leveraging power. The leverage is at it's highest power with local decisions, wherein the monies circulate over and over agion in the local economy. The worst for the local economy is an internet purchase, where the dollars leave the community and the state, and the sales tax revenue is also forfeited. That means less money for police, firemen, teachers, roads and services.

When we ask you to shop locally, we do want you to support us, no question about it. But the import of our message changes quite a bit when we also tell you that we advise local purchases wherever you go. In Howell or Dundee or Petosky or Wyandotte, we tell you that your money is maximized through investment in local businesses. AND, when you shop locally, you'll be spending with people that will thank you, and pay it forward.

Shop Local for selfish reasons! It's nice to do business with people that appreciate it, isn't it?

Why Local?

As an independent, locally owned business, Chelsea along with our sister store Willow Tree has a vested interest and is biased in encouraging the support of such businesses as ours over national chains. It can't be denied, nor would we even begin to try.

Our bias is well founded in personal belief. On every front, we find locally owned businesses to be more interesting, more connected to the customers that support them, more connected to their communities, and more supportive of other locally owned businesses that synergistically create and strenghthen the commuties in which they operate. It is almost always so much more rewarding to us to spend our money with them. We support them every bit as much for selfish reasons, and we are proud of it and glad for our selfishness. They matter to us, they satisfy us more, they are important to us. We like them, and we like them in large part because they like us. They love us, they wrap their policies around us, they love the entire act of doing business in the communities they love. So do we.

To focus on just one venue: The food that national chains serve is generally good, if unsurprising. One has to be deliberately contrary to find fault with the product or the service or even the cookie cutter ambiance of Olive Garden or Carraba's or Outback or any of dozens of other chain operations that populate every metropolitan area in the country. It's also clear that they are highly successful, with crowded parking lots and waiting lists on most nights.

But there's no heart. We're all just numbers at places like that. Rattling off examples of local restaurants that know us and connect with us in countless ways is easy, and it's gratifying to do so. If they were to fail and close their doors, it would matter, it would be sad and they would be missed.

So we support them. We do our best to direct the dollars that are our weapon of choice to all the places that matter to us. As often as we can, in every type of store we can, we support the independent, and leave the nationals to fend for themselves through their endless advertising budgets and remodeling efforts.

Every meal at a local restaurant matters. Each trip to the small grocer pays another bill for them, keeping them stronger than they would be without our support. And yes, every suit or shirt purchased at a store like ours matters. It is always a choice that we make, either automatically without consideration, or consciously with intent for the purposess we decide on.

When you see the "Think Local" signs and hear the words, think of it in this way if you can. Each and every one of our decisions has a small but powerful impact on the health of the meshed network of our local community. Multiply it by 10, then 100, then 1,000 and so on, and the impact becomes crystal clear. But it starts with an awareness of the power of our choice, and it hinges on the willingness to voice that opinion and commitment.

More in a future blog. There's much to share. Once one opens the door, it becomes harder to NOT think of the power of their spending. So ours is to open doors.

Visit www.the350project.net. Locals love us more.