Locally owned businesses support the communities that support them. Ten great reasons to shop locally:
1. Significantly more money re-circulates in our community when you buy from locally owned, rather than nationally owned, businesses. Locally owned businesses purchase from other local businesses, service providers and farms. Purchasing locally helps grow other businesses as well as our tax base.
2. Most new jobs are provided by local businesses. Small local businesses account for the largest share of net new jobs each year.
3. One-of-a-kind businesses are an integral part of the unique Bitterroot Valley character, which is what brought us here and will keep us here.
4. Local business owners invest in community. People who live locally are invested in our shared future.
5. Customer service is better. Local businesses are closer to the customer and often hire people with more specific product expertise.
6. Competition and diversity lead to more choices. A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation, choice and low prices over the long term.
7. It’s better for the environment. Locally owned businesses generally set up shop in town or city centers. This generally means less sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution.
8. Public benefits far outweigh public costs. Local businesses in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.
9. Encourages investment in the Bitterroot Valley. Entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.
10. Nonprofits receive greater support. Nationally, nonprofit organizations receive an average 350 percent greater support from local business owners than they do from non-locally owned businesses.
Source: Business Alliance for Local, Living Economies, www.livingeconomies.org.
That support takes many forms including the wages and salaries local businesses pump back into the local economy, the encouragement of investment in that economy.
“I think people recognize that the business environment can change quickly these days, from small, local, customer-focused businesses to large organizations that are based elsewhere. We have to support local businesses so that doesn’t happen We have to support local businesses so the profits can be re-invested back into our local community through local spending,” said Hilary JC McDowell, owner of Bandit Brewing, which is slated to open this December in Darby.
One of the most compelling benefits of supporting locally owned and operated businesses is a strong, diverse and vibrant economy.
“When shoppers spend dollars at local stores, a much larger share of sales revenue recycles back into local economic activity as compared to chain store revenue. Figures vary, but the amount that re-circulates in the community is more than 60% for local businesses, versus just over 40%for chain stores. If you shop with your local stores and have an issue and need to return or repair an item, you deal directly with the local shop. However, if you have an issue with an item from a big box store, you’re likely to speak with a foreign source,” said Gay Findley, owner of West Fork Mountain Crafts in Conner.
That difference is due to four factors: local payroll, local procurement, owners’ profits and charitable giving.
Local businesses also provide customers with a sense of security they may not feel when dealing with larger regional or national retailers.
“There’s a lot of excitement these days about the Buy Local movement. The movement is finding its way into the mainstream because of the problems with imports from China. We love the Bitterroot Valley. We love the people, the architecture, the politics, the environment, the art and the culture — and we love the unique stores, shops, restaurants and services that give the Bitterroot Valley its special character that we cherish. We have come together to promote the Bitterroot Valley Buy Local campaign and, in doing so, protect the diversity and economic solvency of the greater southwestern Montana area,” said Connie Gallagher, owner of the Darby Mercantile, a new shop in Darby, which offers a variety of local and organic goods.
The intent is to preserve that unique Bitterroot Valley character through advocacy, education and directing customers to locally owned businesses. For every employee hired, I have read that 1.65 employees will lose their jobs at the small businesses closing as the result of a big box store and that is a net loss. Instead of the money spent staying locally, it will leave the Valley when spent at the big box store. Regardless of what the DEQ says, there are environmental impacts when that much land is covered by asphalt and cement. Some of our best resources are the scenic beauty of the river, mountains, and valley. A big box store will take away from the authentic feel of our valley.
Adele Dicken, Business Owner
Darby