Article written by John Koziol of the Laconia Citizen
Published in the Laconia Citizen (04/01/09)

Despite being smaller, independently-owned businesses may be better poised than their "big box" brethren to find opportunities in an economy where consumers are increasingly rediscovering the merits of "buying local."

That was the message Stacy Mitchell delivered Tuesday evening to some 100 people, most of them owners of the aforementioned businesses, who gathered in the Laconia High School theater for a
presentation sponsored by the Belknap Independent Business Alliance (BIBA).

The alliance is a nonprofit coalition dedicated to promoting locally owned, independent businesses in
Central New Hampshire; informing citizens "of the values provided by community-based businesses and
their importance to the local economy;" and preventing the displacement of those businesses by national and transnational chains.

Mitchell — who is a senior researcher with the New Rules Project, which itself is a program of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, said the chains are doing a pretty good job of making themselves expendable and independent business more attractive to consumers.

Most recently the author of Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses (Beacon Press, 2006), Mitchell, in driving from her home in Portland, Maine to Laconia, said the Lakes Region is fortunate to have a "quite remarkable" variety and number of small, independent businesses.

That will bode well as those businesses, through BIBA, attempt to do something radical, which is to
build the area economy from the ground up instead of the top down, she said.

Decades of national, state, regional and even local planning has stressed the need to attract big factories and retailers in the expectation that they would bring jobs and prosperity.

While the former may actually do so, the latter hasn't, Mitchell said, even as some of the largest retail chains in America — Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens and Rite Aid — have received development subsidies from all levels of government.

"It hasn't been very much of a free market. We've tilted the playing field" in favor of the big retailers, Mitchell said, even as a recent study from St. Louis, Mo. found that the development subsidies don't always produce their hoped-for economic gains.

Subsidizing chain stores doesn't make sense, Mitchell said, because their operations are highly fuelintensive, requiring vast truck fleets to carry products to stores that are often located a lengthier drive away from consumers.

"This didn't matter in the era of cheap gasoline," she said, but it matters now when it's generally
accepted that fossil fuels are not only running out and getting more expensive, but also because they
are a major contributor to global warming.

Big-box retailers and shopping centers and other examples of "retail sprawl," a study has found, cost
governments "$40 per square foot more" than a business in a traditional downtown in terms of delivering services, Mitchell said.

America has vastly overbuilt retail developments, resulting nationally in some 1.4 billion square feet of vacant space, she said. Before 1990, Mitchell said there was an average of 19 square feet of retail space for every person, but from 1990 to 2005 that number shot up to 38 square feet per person while retail spending during the same period rose only 14 percent.

Mitchell said while big box retailers take money away from communities, independently-owned businesses help it stay there.

Every $100 spent locally will generate an additional $68 in local spending while the same $100 spent at a chain store resulted in only $43 more spent in the community where the store is based, she said.

As those extra dollars are being spent locally, another important thing is happening, Mitchell said:
Social capital is being raised.

"There's lots of meaningful loitering going on," she said, as consumers not only buy whatever items they may need from a local business, but also spend time at the store interacting with the proprietor or fellow shoppers.

Wal-Mart takes in one out of every four dollars spent in the U.S. on groceries, but you have only a one-in-10 chance of conversing with a fellow shopper whereas the chance of human contact is six in 10 at a farmer's market, Mitchell said.

In addition to the social capital, which she said results in lower crime rates and greater civic engagement, Mitchell added that independently-owned businesses give consumers expertise and passion about products that they typically won't get elsewhere.

Mitchell said BIBA should intensify its current "Buy Local" campaign with banners, posters, customer thank-you cards, directories, coupon books and other measures while targeting the 60 percent of consumers who currently don't shop exclusively at either a local independent or a chain store.

Supporters of independently-owned businesses should work to change state laws, Mitchell said, noting that Arizona has banned retail development subsidies while New York, in an effort to help independent bookstores, is requiring online merchants to collect the state sales tax.

On the local level, planning and zoning regulations can be amended to make them friendlier to small businesses and each community should have a plan to help develop small business as well as to capitalize start-ups, Mitchell said.

To a question from Doug Holmes, who is the executive director of the Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce, Mitchell said groups like BIBA should seek out all partnerships, including with the chamber, that would help meet its larger goal.

In her closing remarks, Mitchell said that not so long ago, nobody knew what "organic" meant but now it's very hot among consumers.

"Local," she said, "is becoming that same kind of thing."

Article written by David Lillard of the Blue Ridge Press.
Published in the Laconia Citizen (03/13/09)

There are two hardware stores near my house. One is a big name-brand store that has everything I need at lower prices, and they're open seven days a week. The other has inconvenient hours — they close at noon on Saturdays — and prices are a little higher. They don't have nearly the same selection either, which means sometimes I have to order parts and wait. So you'd think I'd shop at the super-convenient big box store on the new highway. Nope. I've decided it's in my economic self-interest to shop at the local mom and pop store.

Like many Americans, I face similar decisions several times each week, weighing the advantages of local vs. national chain supermarkets, pharmacies, restaurants, clothing, and electronic stores. With the global economy in freefall, it's tempting to vote for the quick savings promised by a national chain, which can make you think you're doing the right thing for your family. But a closer look shows that the savings gained at Walmart or Sam's Club might cost more dearly, especially in these hard economic times.

Here are ten reasons to think local, buy local, and be local, as listed by the American Independent Business Alliance, a nonprofit group that promotes sustainable communities through strong local economies.

1. Buying local supports you and your family. When you buy from an independent, locally owned business, significantly more of your buying dollar stays in the community and is used to make purchases from other local businesses, like local service providers and local advertisers (such as this newspaper!), which helps strengthen the economic base of your hometown. (Visit www.AMIBA.net to see case studies supporting this claim).

2. When you buy from local businesses, you're supporting local nonprofits. Studies show that small business owners give an average of 250 percent more dollars in donations to local nonprofits than do large businesses. This should be especially important to any soccer mom with a son or daughter on a team or in Scouts, or someone who enjoys local theater and the arts.

3. Buying local keeps your community unique. Where we shop, where we eat and have fun — all of it makes our community home. Our one-of-a-kind local businesses give a distinctive character to a place, and add to quality of life; they also bring in more tourist dollars. "When people go on vacation they generally seek out destinations that offer them the sense of being someplace, not just anyplace," says National Trust for Historic Preservation President Richard Moe.

4. Reduce your environmental impact. Locally owned businesses make more local purchases, which means less wasted fossil fuel for deliveries from afar. Also, when you shop in town or city centers, your purchases contribute less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss, and pollution. You save money too, whenever you can walk instead of driving to buy.

5. Local business creates more good jobs. Small, local businesses are the largest employers nationally, and the jobs they offer create stronger links to our communities. After all, where would you rather see a son or daughter work: at a local store where they might get valuable personal employer referrals, or at an impersonal national chain store checkout counter?

6. When you buy local, you invest in community. Local businesses are owned by your neighbors, people who live in your town, who are less likely to leave, and who — like you — are more invested in the community's future. Local businesses provide very important community allies in tough economic times.

7. You get better service locally. Local businesses often hire people with a better understanding of the products they sell, and take more time to get to know customers. If a product causes problems, the local business is more likely to respond to your concerns in a personal way.

8. Buying local puts your taxes to good use. Local businesses, particularly those in town centers, require little public infrastructure investment, as compared to nationally owned chains built at the edge of town with taxpayer money for improved roads, water and sewer service.

9. You can buy what you want, not what someone wants you to buy. A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based not on a national sales plan but on the needs and requests of local customers, assure a buyer-friendly range of product choices.

10. Buying local encourages local prosperity. A growing body of economic research shows that, in an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive hometown character.

So, whenever possible, I buy local. Yeah, I may pay a little more for that new bathroom fixture at the local hardware, and deal with the occasional frustration of inconvenient hours. But I enjoy running into neighbors there. And nothing beats knowing the owner by name, and getting her tips on how to get a good seal on my pipe fittings. To me, it's worth it.

© 2009 Blue Ridge Press - David Lillard is co-owner of a small town newspaper in West Virginia, and co-editor of Blue Ridge Press.

Published in the Laconia Daily Sun (03/10/09)

Members of the Belknap Independent Business Alliance with the Laconia City Council shortly after the council signed a pledge agreeing to shift 10% of the city’s purchases from chains to local independent businesses.

Standing from left to right are Carla Peterson, Hector’s Fine Foods; Debbie Frawley-Drake, Lakes Region Linen; Jan Boudreau, LaBelle’s Shoe Repair; Jack Polidoro; Patrick and Jane Wood, Patrick Wood Law Office; Charlie Bullerwell, All My Life Jewelers; Roger and Pam Landry, NAPA Auto Parts; Randy and Sue Bullerwell, All My Life Jewelers; and Ken Sawyer, Franklin Savings Bank.

The City Councilors seated (Left to Right) are Greg Knytych (Ward 1), Robert Luther (Ward 2), Henry Lipman (Ward 3), Mayor Matthew Lahey, Brenda Baer (Ward 4), Robert Hamel (Ward 5) and Armand Bolduc (Ward 6). (Kinney O’Rourke/for The Laconia Daily Sun)