buy local

While Buy Local Week is over, there are still many ways you can find and supportlocally owned businesses during the holidays. 

This year, MHBA has launched our first "Buy Local Bingo," where you can win great prizes by shopping at local businesses. 

The rules and an entry card are on the Colorado Local First site, but we wanted to underscore a few cool things: 

Going Local is Easy on Cyber Monday!

Happy Buy Local Week! We hope that you've been having a blast supporting your community. We wanted to take today to discuss Cyber Monday. Did you know that there are countless ways to still positively impact your local economy, even when it comes to shopping online? Here are some great tips:

• Some online companies are based locally.
• Many of your favorite retailers also have online stores.
• Search larger sites for local retailers. For example, you can find local merchants on amazon.com. Etsy has a local search feature as well.

 

The following are local companies that have a web presence. And don't forget that purchases made with these businesses are eligible for Buy Local Bingo! So buy locally (even online!) and get the chance to win big prizes. Happy online shopping!

How to Nourish the Local Food System

Every dollar you spend is an investment in something. If you'd like more food choices that nurture our local economy, here are a few things you can do:

 

Read the labels. Find out where the stuff you're buying comes from and seek out local products. Doing so will result in more bang for your buck; your dollar will have a deeper impact.

Visit farmers' markets. This is one of the best ways to find the freshest food in season. You also get the unique opportunity to meet the people who grew and raised your food.

As always, we <3 local food, especially when it's being served at local restaurants. The folks over at WaterCourse have decided to celebrate the changing seasons with a 5 course meal featuring local produce and spectacular wines.

The night's menu was created by Chef Rachel Kesley and Sous Chef Jo Barrett. I recommend reading it as it is a work of art just in itself. However, do not read it while hungry unless you're reading it October 22nd just before dinner time. While I'm a proponent of delayed gratification, my menu perusing has left me feeling tortured. Anyone have any good local lunch ideas to hold me over???

 

Who/Where: WaterCourse Foods

837 17th Ave  Denver

What: Scrumptious 5 course meal

When: October 22nd

More info & RSVP instructions here.

Buy Local Week is Coming!

How do you want to be involved?


The Mile High Business Alliance is proud to be hosting the Buy Local Week holiday shopping campaign for the fourth year in December of 2010.

Lori Webster has been feeling the love recently. Small business love, that is. She's been telling the customers of her family-owned stationery store about the 3/50 Project, one of many campaigns to support local small businesses.

Then last week, Tom Hanks walked into Webster's Fine Stationers in Altadena, Calif.—about 20 miles from Hollywood. Celebrities aren't unheard-of in the store: The actor John C. Reilly lives in the neighborhood and drops by occasionally.

But Hanks, who was filming on location across the street, went out of his way to talk up small business. "He told us how nice it is to shop at a family-owned business and how he particularly liked family-owned stationery stores," Webster says. Along with extolling the virtues of small business, and disparaging their big-box competitors, Hanks asked about Webster's history, posed for pictures, lamented the closing of the family's card store nearby, and bought $120 worth of pens, notebooks, and puzzle books.

A “Sleeping Giant” for Arizona’s Economy?

Local First Arizona economic study finds half-billion dollar annual impact from newly privatized SCF Arizona

Phoenix, AZ (June 7, 2010) – Local First Arizona (LFA), a non-profit organization representing a coalition of local and independent Arizona businesses, issued the findings today of an economic impact study commissioned by LFA that scientifically measures the economic impact of buying locally. The study demonstrates that locally-based SCF Arizona, the state’s largest workers’ compensation insurance supplier, has an annual economic impact in the state of approximately a half-billion dollars. The findings, reported by Applied Economics found that last year SCF sourced 82 percent of its goods and services from other Arizona companies, resulting in an overall economic impact in Arizona of $528.3 million in 2009. This one company – with 555 employees – demonstrates the power of buying locally. In other words, for every person SCF employs Arizona benefits economically by $952,000.

Okay. I'm definitely hooked on Go Local Sonoma County's website. There is so much excellent information on there that I couldn't help but make one more post on banking locally. The following information is taken from a post by Kelley Rajala and Terry Garrett.Make sure to follow the link to see a great Prezi on the Local Multiplier Effect. (Background: Prezi is similar to PowerPoint, but is less linear in both layout as well as scope.) Enjoy!

Support the Local

Olympic souvenirs, half price

Missing the Winter Olympics? Ease the pain with a visit to the USOC Training Center in Colorado Springs, where all Vancouver and Team USA Vancouver merchandise is half price at the USOC Training Center Shop, 1750 E. Boulder St., at the intersection of Boulder Street and Union Boulevard, 719-866-4792. All proceeds help support Team USA, which will make all those snazzy new items feel even better. The shop is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and the Training Center also offers free tours -- so make a day of it.