Buy or Buh-Bye

It's been a while for any social responsibility topics, but a conversation with a friend the other day inspired this one. I've written before about the value of buying local for keeping local businesses thriving and available to you as an expert resource in your outdoor pursuits. But have you considered the economic impact? I hadn't fully.

According to a study published by Andersonville Development Corp. when you spend $100 with a locally-owned business, $32 leaves your community and $68 stays. Contrast this with a non-locally-owned business where $43 stays and an astounding $57 leaves your area. This study is a little dated (2004) so I wonder how dramatic the difference is for Internet-based business -- I'm sure it's astounding.

So, think of it this way -- if you spend money locally, it may cost more for the purchase, but it saves you in the long run. That business pays taxes, which helps keep yours down. Their employees spend money in the community, which keeps costs competitive. I own a home in a town where the largest employer is a public university who doesn't pay taxes, so this really hits home with me. And it didn't hurt to be able to have my local bike shop set-up my disc brakes on the mt. bike properly after I couldn't quite get it right. Or have the guy at the fly shop teach me how to tie a new knot.

A little off-topic, but I'm also a believer in trying to buy locally sourced produce. In addition to usually being more fresh and healthy, it also requires less fossil fuel for transit. But the Michigan Food & Farming Systems consortium also says that if every Michigan family bought just $10 per week in Michigan produce, it would keep $37 million a week from leaving Michigan. That's stunning. And in a state that's in the news almost daily for it's faltering economy, that's not chump change.

This is not to be elitist, or high-falutin'. Do I sometimes fall short of this goal? Yup. But I find that if I'm conscious of making these decisions, it's really pretty easy to spend more money locally. Change comes not from a few making sweeping modifications, but from many making incremental improvements.

-Sean-