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TOP 10 REASONS TO BUY LOCAL
1. Keep money in the neighborhood For every $100 spent at a locally owned business, $45 goes back into the community –and our tax base. For every $100 spent at a chain store, only $14 comes back*
2. Help the Environment. Save Our Bay. Independent businesses make purchases requiring less transportation and usually set up shop in commercial corridors and in-town instead of developing on the fringe. They support their local suppliers, craftsmen and farmers.
3. Create More Good Jobs Small local businesses offer greater loyalty to their employees and are one of the largest employers nationally and in Annapolis.
4. Receive Better Service Local businesses often hire people who have a better knowledge of the products they are selling, and take more time to know their customers. They care!
5. Invest in the Community Local businesses are owned by people who live here, work here, and are more invested in our future.
6. Supports Community Groups Nonprofits receive an average of 350% more support from local business owners than they do from non-locally owned businesses.
7. Put Your Taxes to Good Use Local businesses in neighborhoods need comparatively less infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.
8. Buy What You Want, Not What Someone Wants You to Buy A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses means low prices over the long-term. Small businesses choosing products based on what their customers love and need - not a national sales plan - guarantees a more diverse range of product choices.
9. Embrace What Makes Us Different Annapolis is a unique city. Where we shop; where we eat and hang out - all of it makes our neighborhood home. Chain stores are getting more aggressive throughout Anne Arundel County and changing the character of where we live. If we wanted to live somewhere that looked like everywhere else, we would have not chosen to live here.
10. Keep Annapolis Authentic In an increasingly homogenized world, people are more likely to invest or move to communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and unique character.
*sources: the economic impact of locally owned businesses vs. Chains: a case study in midcoast Maine, the institute for local Self-reliance and friends of midcoast Maine, September 2003; and economic impact analysis: a case study, civic economics, December 2002.
