(734) 324-4514
:::Why Local First?:::
What We're About...
Local First wants to increase awareness that there is a cost attached to taking dollars away from the local economy. We're suggesting that it's worth trying to change habits to ensure that local businesses survive, prosper, and contribute to the community. Communities that support their local businesses are richer, happier, more secure and well-rounded. Our goal is simple: To make people more aware of local businesses and to think of them first for each and every purpose. National retailers do not notice if you shop with them or not. Local retailers notice it, appreciate and value it. Local retailers know you and you know them, often on a first-name basis. Think Local. Shop Local. |
10 Benefits of Supporting Local Business
- Local Character and Prosperity – In an increasingly homogenized world, communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character have an economic advantage.
- Community Well-Being – Locally-owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a web of economic and social relationships, and contributing to local causes.
- Local Decision-Making – Ensures that important decisions are made locally by people who will feel the impacts of those decisions.
- Keeping Dollars in the Local Economy – Compared to chain stores, locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local economy.
- Job and Wages – Locally-owned businesses create more local jobs and, in some sectors, provide better wages and benefits than chains do.
- Entrepreneurship – Fuels America's economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into a better way of life.
- Public Benefits and Costs – Local stores in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls.
- Environmental Sustainability – 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.
- Competition – A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.
- Product Diversity – 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.
Where Does the Money Go?
These successful operations command a massive share of the Downriver market for the categories in which they operate. Were you aware of their headquarters locations?
Wal-Mart: Bentonville, AK
Target: Minneapolis, MN
Kmart/Sears: Hoffman Estates, IL
JCPenney: Plano, TX
Macy's: Cincinnati, OH
Nordstrom Seattle, WA
Home Depot: Atlanta, GA
Lowes Moorsville, NC
Empire Today: Northlake, IL
Kroger: Cincinnati, OH
Mens Wearhouse: Houston, TX
Forever Twenty One: Los Angeles, CA
Applebee's: Glendale, CA
Chili's: Dallas, TX
Olive Garden: Orlando, FL
Red Lobster: Orlando, FL
Outback: Tampa, FL
Carraba's: Tampa, FL
Profits at these stores go out of state. Most products offered at any of the above are also available at or through the locally owned stores of Wyandotte. Profits in Wyandotte stay in the city or region, and do not leave the state. Every purchase makes a difference.
|
