"Buy Local" Efforts Grow But Not Without Challenges

Whitney Brooks longs for the downtown Lexington of her youth, the place where her mother operated a needlepoint and sewing store and residents purchased groceries and medicines from independent store owners.

That place doesn’t exist anymore, but Brooks strives to shop from locally owned stores both in Lexington, where she lives, and Greensboro, where she works at an accounting firm.

“There was life there,” Brooks recalled. “There is still somewhat but it’s not much of a practical destination for people who live there anymore.”

Brooks, 29, is among those who believe that money is best spent supporting locally owned businesses. The number of “buy local” initiatives has grown nationally over the past decade.

Buy Triad First, a Greensboro-based network of independent business owners, formed in the summer of 2009. Others can be found in Archdale-Trinity, Carrboro, Raleigh, Wilmington and Winston-Salem.

Such initiatives generally fall into two categories: sporadic marketing campaigns that help smaller businesses compete against national chain stores, and ambitious economic development programs that seek to expand the types of goods and services provided locally.

Think local first

Buy Triad First and Shop Local Raleigh, for example, fall into the first category. Squeezed by the recession and often overlooked by hurried shoppers, independent shopkeepers have rallied to convince consumers and fellow retailers to think of them first when buying a cup of coffee or ordering a picture frame.

These merchants point to economic studies that bolster their claims that independent businesses preserve the diversity and uniqueness of downtown and neighborhood business districts, spend a higher percentage of their revenues in the community, and are less likely to move to another state or country.

While big-box stores hire local workers and can offer lower prices, recent studies have found that taxpayers sometimes subsidize their operations by paying for road improvements during the building process as well as health care, housing and food assistance for low-wage employees.

Brooks deliberately seeks out local providers when she needs a car repair, insurance or groceries. “My biggest hope is that all this localization is not just a fad,” she said. “I worry about cities just becoming one big pocket of chain stores one after another.”

In Brooks’ own county, economic developers tried a few years ago to encourage large companies to buy among themselves. Ben Ross, president of Davidson Vision, an economic development group, recalled that three companies switched from out-of-state suppliers to ones within the county.

But Ross and others realize that sourcing locally for most needs is nearly impossible in today’s globalized economy. Buy Triad First already struggles with whether to include franchise owners in its network, said the group’s president, Dottie Cooke. Cooke said she couldn’t operate her Jack Cecil boutique if she had to sell only locally made items.

“I don’t know if I can go that far,” Cooke said.

“The people who are members of this are very conscious of that part of it. But no community can sustain the number of businesses they have doing it.”

A new economic model

Central Park NC, an economic development group working with eight rural Piedmont counties, operates a creative business incubator in a former mill in the town of Star.

The incubator, called STARworks, includes a glass studio, ceramics supply shop featuring Piedmont clays, and a biodiesel plant.

In October, Central Park NC brought in economist Michael Shuman to encourage area business and community leaders to focus on nurturing and supporting local entrepreneurs rather than offering tax breaks to outside corporations that promise hundreds of jobs. Shuman serves as research and public policy director of the national Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, which seeks to create economies that are locally-based and environmentally and socially responsible.

Shuman’s ideas include:

* Creating joint purchasing programs for independent merchants to lower the cost of supplies and services.

* Distributing debit or gift cards honored by local businesses.

* Changing laws to make it easier for people to invest locally.

* Ending tax subsidies that favor large corporations over smaller businesses.

“Stop destroying local business,” Shuman said, speaking of policymakers. “You don’t have to give them special favors. Just stop destroying them.”

In fact, prolocal policies aren’t always necessary or beneficial, particularly if public officials prioritize stable, long-term employment. An examination of 14 years of U.S. business census data by the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany, found that local business ownership did not necessarily insulate cities from economic shocks. The study’s authors concluded that cities might do better to attract headquarters of larger companies than adopt policies that help locally-owned, small businesses.

Although independent merchants add character and vibrancy to a community, large cities need different types of businesses to sustain themselves, said Rob Clapper, president of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce.

“At the end of the day, it’s about encouraging local prosperity,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a big box or local store that accomplishes it. They’re still equally important as a tax-paying entity.”

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