Why Local?

Top Ten Reasons:

1.     Significantly more money re-circulates in the Buffalo area: when purchases are made at locally owned, rather than nationally owned businesses.  More money is kept in the community because locally owned businesses often purchase from other local businesses, service providers and farms. Purchasing local helps grow other businesses as well as the local tax base.

2.      Nonprofits receive greater support: Nonprofit organizations receive an average of 350% greater support from local business owners than they do from non-locally owned businesses.

3.     Local businesses are unique: The unique character of Buffalo is what brought us here and will keep us here.  Our tourism businesses also benefit.  When people go on vacation they generally seek out destinations that offer them a sense of being someplace, not just “anyplace” ~Richard Moe, President, National Historic Preservation Trust.

4.     Reduced environmental impact: Locally owned businesses can make more local purchases requiring less transportation and generally set up shop in town or city centers as opposed to developing on the fringe.  This generally means contributing to less sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution.

5.     Most new jobs are provided by local businesses: Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally and in Buffalo provide the most new jobs to residents.

6.      Customer service is better: Local businesses often hire people with more specific product expertise for better customer service.

7.      Local businesses owners invest in community: Local businesses are owned by people who live in this community, are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the community’s future.

8.      Public benefits far outweigh public costs: Local businesses in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.

9.      Competition and diversity leads to more choices: A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.  A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based not on a national sales plan but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.

10. Encourages investment in Buffalo: 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 character.