Attention socially-conscious-and-economically-strained shoppers! It's time to come to the aid of local merchants in your city - or they may go the way of Kmart's blue-light special. Squeezed by the recession of 2008-2009 and lacking the purchasing power of their national competitors, local independent shops are facing a sink-or-swim challenge the likes of which many have never seen.
These stores, whether they're quirky, stylish or down-home, are an irreplaceable element of the urban aesthetic and a boon to city shoppers everywhere, advocates say.
Quirky, stylish or down-home, an irreplaceable element of the urban aesthetic.
"Local-serving retail stores deliver goods and services you need daily - grocers, dry cleaners, clothing shops," says Christopher Leinberger, a Brookings Institution visiting fellow who is also a real estate developer. "These stores have very loyal customers, though that loyalty only goes so far. They've got to get away from, 'Buy from us because we're cute and it's the right thing to do.' "
Local retail doesn't just liven up neighborhoods with active storefronts; it also boosts the local economy by recirculating income by paying local employees and patronizing nearby suppliers.
Independent shops keep money flowing locally
Advocates of independent merchants also emphasize that local shopping boosts funding for infrastructure and other local services by increasing local and state tax receipts.
"For every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures," according to The 3/50 Project, which promotes the benefits of local shopping. "If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays here."
There's evidence that shoppers have helped the independent-retailer sector weather a deep recession relatively well. Whereas 2008 holiday retail sales declined a record 9.8 percent overall according to the Commerce Department, sales at independent stores were down a less bleak 5 percent, says the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
Advocates insist that the shop-local trend is more than just wishful thinking. "In the past there have been chambers of commerce or city governments that have done wishy-washy 'shop downtown' campaigns, and they don't have much impact," says Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and author of The Home Town Advantage. "But campaigns we're supporting and tracking are building long-term capacity in the community. Their residents want to make sure that the local businesses that they value will survive."
These shop-local organizations do appear to have an impact: Independent stores in cities lacking a buy-local campaign saw holiday sales drop 5.6 percent; cities with a shop-local group saw a shallower drop of 3.2 percent.
The shop-local movement isn't limited to the left and right coasts. You might expect the trend to gain traction in liberal bastions like Boston or Seattle, but it has also taken hold in more conservative cities like Phoenix that are dominated by malls and big-box sprawl.
"Early adopters were the usual suspects, such as college towns," says Mitchell. "But as the movement has grown, the range of communities has become more and more diverse."
Besides entertaining the vague notion that you'd like to do more to patronize local shops, what can you do? Here are five ways to help your local favorites, while getting the good value that most of us require these days.
