buy local

Olympic souvenirs, half price

February 18th 2010

More groups are forming to send shoppers to home-grown independent businesses. But their impact on jobs is hard to quantify.

By now, residents of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood have figured out that their trendy new coffee shop, 15th Ave. Coffee & Tea, is actually owned by Starbucks. With fresh flowers, beans ground to order, and a "help yourself" policy regarding used coffee grounds—for composting, of course—the store could pass for a locally owned café.

From Cleveland to Tempe, economic developers are convincing institutions with big spending power to shift more dollars to small businesses in their communities.

Prom dresses, $10
          If you know any families who will have to strain the budget to buy a prom dress, please tell them about the Prom Dress Exchange, where more than 3,000 gorgeous, gently used and freshly cleaned prom dresses will be available between 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., on Saturday, March 20, and Sunday, March 21, at Copper Fields Events Chateau, 4901 Marshall St., Wheat Ridge, 720-898-8388. No one will insist, but a $10 donation to defray the cost of cleaning would be appreciated.
           This is the 10th Prom Dress Exchange for Copper Fields owner Cheryl Wise, who knows that the need is particularly great this year. She wants to make sure every dress finds a proud owner.  So please help spread the word by printing out a few copies of this item and posting it on bulletin boards wherever high school girls or their families might see it.

This Valentine's Day, we're asking you to give a little love to local businesses. Supporting our local economy in turn supports our community.

Did you know that 600% more of the money you spend at local businesses recirculates in within our community, making it 6 times more likely to come back to you.  

A little bit of love sure goes a long way. Here are a few suggestions for meeting your V-Day needs via local businesses.

Since this summer, I have been covering the ever growing movement of local governments adopting (or at the least formally encouraging) an internal purchasing preference to that which is local. This includes proclamations supporting local vendors as well as point systems that favor awarding contracts to local bidders. Now, I just got wind of an executive order issued by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter directing state agencies to adhere to the Buy American Provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Though this isn't the typical hyper-localized "buy local" proclamation you're used to seeing, it is very important to consider the relative perspective of government-sized purchasing initiatives. This legislation isn't necessarily going to fuel a small town's economy or support a community that's easily tangible to the individual, but it certainly is focused on keeping money within the United States, which will affect us all in the long run.

Locally-owned independent businesses outperform average retailer sales during 2009 holidays. Those with active Buy Local campaigns fared best.

Best Colorado Deals
Dedicated to independent shoppers and retailers. Be sure to catch Janet’s deals, highlighted each Friday on the 4 p.m. KUSA Channel 9 news broadcast!

Time for CCN’s Insidewalk Sale   
    The Cherry Creek North Insidewalk Sale runs through Jan. 31, with winter clearance prices at such outstanding independent shops and boutiques as these:

Janet Simons, author of the Colorado Smart Shopper, blogger of Best Colorado Deals, and veteran Rocky Mountain News shopping columnist discusses her New Year's resolutions to integrate more local shopping into her life. Exerpt taken from the BestColoradoDeals.com newsletter, a publication dedicated to independent shoppers and retailers.

Local shopping is hot

I entered the phrase “2010 trends buy local” into Google, and got back 9,120,000 results, a pretty good indication that buying local is going to be a pretty big deal in the coming year, and probably well beyond.

Money is tight, though, and it can be hard to pay even a few more cents for a product purchased from a locally based retailer instead of a national chain. Multiplied by thousands of transactions, however, those few cents can make the difference between survival and failure for the local businesses that keep our neighborhoods and state economically strong. So I’m making my resolutions for the coming year public this year, in the hope that they might catch on.  

Study Will Highlight Impacts of "Local First" and "Buy Local" Campaigns

The survey closes tomorrow, Tuesday, January 12th at midnight Pacific time. Thus far, the survey has 300 fewer business respondents than in 2009.