Why Shop Local?

• Locally owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant village centers, linking neighborhoods with economic and social relationships and contributing to local non-profits.
  
  
• Keeping dollars in the local economy – Compared to chain stores, locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local community.
  
  
• In an increasingly homogenized world, communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character have an economic advantage.
  
  
• Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in some sectors provide better wages and benefits than chains do.
  
  
• Entrepreneurship fuels America’s economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs into the middle class.
  
  
• Local ownership ensures that important decisions - such as hiring, advertising and buying - are made by people who live in the community and who feel the impact of those decisions.
  
  
• Local stores require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls.
  
  
• Environmental Sustainability – Vibrant, compact walkable town centers reduce sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss and air and water pollution.
  
  
• Competition and product diversity– a marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses ensures innovation, diversity and low prices over the long term.