Buy locally...why?

Through a cooperative effort involving American Express in the late fall of 2013, residents across the country were urged to "Shop Small." The Shop Small initiative encouraged and even challenged consumers to remain in their own small communities to shop throughout the holiday season. Local residents may have seen the "Shop Small" door mats and giveaway shopping bags that promoted the effort.

With the start of a new year, Dexter Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Janet Coleman says anytime is a great time to emphasize the importance of shopping at home.

"We have so many unique shopping opportunities in Dexter. It's not unusual in many of our shops to have customers who have driven even from as far away as St. Louis just to shop at some of our stores. That's pretty amazing when you think of it. We have so many unique shops that offer items not found anywhere else in the state. That's a tremendous credit to our little city of Dexter."

The most significant reason to shop locally, Coleman explains, is to continue to strengthen the economic base of the community. Sales taxes in Dexter help to fund such basics as police and fire protection, and street repairs.

A look at the numbers

An incentive project for small business owners, established in 2009, is called, "The 3/50 Project." The Minnesota-based project examines the benefits of shopping "small"" and provides incentives for business owners to in turn encourage their community to spend their dollars locally. By educating consumers about the impact of their spending habits, the project's goal is to increase consumer spending in a way that delivers the greatest amount of financial benefit to the economies of local communities.

Consumers are asked, through the 3/50 Project, to think of three local businesses they would miss if they disappeared, and to shop at those businesses with a reminder that those transactions are what keeps the doors open.

"If half the employed population spent $50 each month in three locally owned independent businesses," the project's founder Cinda Baxter says, "it would generate more than $42.6 billion in revenue."

Coleman agrees with the project's outlook. "For every $100 spent in locally-owned independent stores," Coleman explains, "$68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures -- only about $43 stays in the local community otherwise. When you buy online, none of that money spent comes back to the local community, and that's something that people don't usually consider when they purchase online."

"Local business owners also make their own decisions that impact people right in Dexter. Their heart is at home, and as they conduct their business, they do so while looking at the best interests of their own neighbors, not the interests of a corporate office across the country."

Try it, you'll like it!

Owner of the Corner Cottage in Dexter, Kim Williams, recently experienced a customer who made a decision in October that has altered her method of buying.

"One of our customers came in one day and said she had challenged herself to shop exclusively at locally-owned businesses for a full month. At the end of the month, she said she had met so many interesting peole at shops in the city of Dexter, she was challenging herself to stick to her plan long term."

Dexter has seen a transition in recent years that seems to be drawing more and more back to the downtown area, a trend that Coleman looks to continue.

"When you look at the advantages of shopping locally -- especially when you look at the dollars that are filtered right back into the local economy -- you really realize the value of experiencing what we have right here," Coleman says. "It's a win-win situation."

The Dexter Chamber of Commerce, whose slogan for years has been, "Buy Local, It's a Guaranteed Return," will be providing more information and local shopping incentives throughout the year ahead as they continue to promote the City of Dexter.