Local Economy Quick Facts

LocalFirst Statements

• Locally owned businesses, retail stores, and restaurants help to make our community unique. Support them!
• By supporting local businesses, you help to sustain our community.
• Shopping locally reduces energy consumption and cost. It is good for the environment!
• Local business owners are your friends and neighbors. They make buying decisions based on local tastes and interests.
• Shopping locally preserves the character and vitality of the community, strengthens our local economy and makes this a better place to live.
• Money spent local stays local.
• Local business owners have a vested interest in the community; they live, work, and pay taxes here. They care deeply about the well-being of the local community, the vibrancy of downtown areas, and the health of local schools.
• A dollar spent at a local independent business, on average, generates at least three times more direct local economic benefit than a dollar spent at a corporate-owned chain.

From Amy Cortese at locavesting.com:

• According to the GAO, a quarter of the country’s largest companies paid no federal income tax in 2005 on more than $1 trillion in revenue.
• Just 1% of the money flying around the stock market goes to funding businesses through public stock offerings; the rest is trading and speculation.
• Forty percent of agricultural startups are denied financing, according to the Carrot Project. And more than half of farmers surveyed by the National Young Farmers Coalition cited lack of capital as their biggest obstacle.
• The median IPO size 20 years ago was $10 million; in 2009, it was $140 million. The IPO market is effectively closed to 80% of companies that need it.

Also see the story "How to Go Local First"

Also see "The Local Multiplier Effect"

Also see "Six Reasons to Go Local"

New Rules Project Localism Index*

Number of new independent bookstores that have opened since 2005:  437

Increase since 2002 in the number of small specialty food stores:  1,414

Increase since 2002 in the number of small farms:  111,839

Number of farmers markets active in 2010:  6,132

Percentage of active farmers markets started since 2000:  53

Average percentage of shoppers at a large supermarket who have a conversation with another customer:  9

Average percentage of shoppers at a farmers market who have a conversation with another customer:  63

Percentage of bank assets held by small and mid-sized community banks:  22

Percentage of small business loans made by small and mid-sized community banks:  54

Growth in deposits at small banks and credit unions since 2008:  $77 billion

Number of chain pharmacy locations that opened in 2009:  177

Number of independent pharmacy locations that opened in 2009:  474

Number of Independent Business Alliances and Local First groups in 2005:  30

Number of Independent Business Alliances and Local First groups in 2010:  143

Percentage change in 2010 sales for independent businesses in cities without a Buy Local First initiative:  2.1

Percentage change in 2010 sales for independent businesses in cities with a Buy Local First initiative:  5.6

Increase since 2002 in the number of Starbucks company stores:  3,297

Increase since 2002 in the number of independent coffee shops:  4,923

Average portion of $100 spent at a Target store that stays in the local economy:  $16

Average portion of $100 spent at independent retailers that stays in the local economy:  $32

Average amount of local wages paid for every $100 spent at a full-service chain restaurant:  $18.68

Average amount of local wages paid for every $100 spent at a full-service locally owned restaurant:  $28.46

Minimum amount having a grocery store, bookstore, coffee shop and restaurant within half a mile of a house increases its value:  $21,000

*Sources: American Booksellers Association; U.S. Economic Census; United States Department of Agriculture, National Directory of Farmers Markets; Robert Sommer, John Herrick, and Ted R. Sommer, "The Behavioural Ecology of Supermarkets and Farmers' Markets," Journal of Environmental Psychology, 1981; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; National Credit Union Administration; National Association of Chain Drugstores, 2010-11 Chain Pharmacy Industry Profile;  American Independent Business Alliance;  Business Alliance for Local Living Economies;  Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 2011 Independent Business Survey;  Starbucks annual reports;  U.S. Economic Census;  Civic Economics, Thinking Outside the Box, September 2009;  Civic Economics, Local Works! Examining the Impact of Local Business on the West Michigan Economy, Sept. 2008; CEOs for Cities, Walking the Walk, August 2009.