Why Local?

Local spending keeps 3 times more money in Buffalo.

Studies conducted by Civic Economics in Maine, California and Chicago demonstrate that when one dollar is spent at a local independent business generally three times more money is re-spent in the local economy versus shopping at a non-local business. More money is kept in the community because locally owned businesses often purchase from other local businesses, service providers and farms. Purchasing locally helps grow other businesses as well as the local tax base.

Locals create the most new jobs.

"Small businesses are the heart of the American economy, responsible for half of all private sector jobs and creator of about 70 percent of all new jobs over the past decade."
- New York State Governor David A. Paterson

Local food is fresher and better for you - and the environment.

Buffalo is located in an agriculturally rich region and is capable of sourcing many foods produced within 50 miles of the city. The average plate of food, however, usually travels 1,500 miles from the farm before reaching your fork. So when you eat locally-grown food it is not only fresher and better for you - it also reduces your food's carbon footprint.

Locals donate more to nonprofits.

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

Local businesses help create a more sustainable economy.

Local independent businesses often use fewer subsidies to develop and are less likely to relocate in slow economic times.

Local shopping reduces environmental impacts.

Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers - which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.

Local food, architecture, business, and organizations make Buffalo unique.

Chicken wings, the Central Terminal, Talking Leaves Books, and holiday shopping at the Broadway Market are all home-grown things that give Buffalo a unique identity and a sense of place. It also drives tourism in our region. According to Richard Moe, President of the National Historic Preservation Trust "When people go on vacation they generally seek out destinations that offer them a sense of being someplace, not just "anyplace".

Locals are neighborhood advocates, caretakers and watchdogs.

Main Street business owners are part of what the great urbanist, Jane Jacobs, calls "eyes on the street" local store owners look out of their shop windows, develop relationships with the community and make our neighborhoods safer and stronger.

Locals can make decisions driven by their conscience, not decisions driven by shareholders.

Large corporations are legally bound to maximize shareholder profits. Nobel Award-Winning economist, Milton Friedman has noted that it is immoral for a large corporation to do otherwise. Smaller businesses, that have no shareholders and are free to make decisions that includes the well-being of their employees, neighborhood and the environment.