bluehouse Weblog

TOP 10 REASONS TO BUY LOCAL

1. Get your money back.

For every $100 spent at a locally owned business, $45 remains in the neighborhood. For every $100 spent at a chain store, only $14 remains.

2. Retain what makes us unique.

Our hang-outs make Baltimore home. Chain stores are getting more aggressive throughout the area and erasing the character of our city. One-of-a-kind, independent businesses have more integrity. If we wanted to live somewhere that looked like everywhere else, we wouldn’t be living in Baltimore.

3. Get better service.

Local businesses often hire people who have a better understanding of the needs of the region, and have more vested interest in getting to know their customers.

4. Buy what you want, not what someone else wants you to buy.

A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses means more meaningful competition, hence lower prices in the long run. Small businesses choose products based on what their customers love and need – not a national sales plan. This guarantees a more diverse range of product choices.

5. Create more, and better, jobs.

Small local businesses are one of the largest employers nationally, and in Baltimore. Local businesses offer greater loyalty and benefits to their employees, and can only hire domestically, keeping our job market competitive.

6. Help protect the world around you.

Independent businesses make purchases requiring less transportation. They usually set up shop in existing commercial corridors instead of developing on the fringe. This means less sprawl, less congestion, less habitat loss, and less pollution. Plus, you save time and gas money! Less travel also reduces our dependance on foreign oil. It encourages positive social interaction and physical excersize because people can walk or ride bikes, instead of being trapped in their cars, alone.

7. Support community groups.

Nonprofits receive an average 350% more support from local business owners than they do from non-locally owned businesses.

8. Invest in the community.

Local businesses are owned by people who live here, work here, and care about our collective future as a city.

9. Put your taxes to good use.

Local businesses in neighborhoods need comparatively less infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of extant public services, as compared to nationally owned stores.

10. Show the country that Baltimore is cool, and attract more cool people.

In an increasingly homogenized world, people are more likely to invest in or move to communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and unique attitude.

Sources: “www.buylocalbaltimore.com” (with Permission)
“The Economic Impact of Locally Owned Businesses vs. Chains: a Case Study in Midcoast Maine”
by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Friends of Midcoast Maine, September 2003
“Economic Impact Analysis: a Case Study”
from Civic Economics, December 2002.

Last week, many of us at bluehouse were heartbroken to learn of the death of Steve Irwin, the iconic Crocodile Hunter, at 44 years of age. A former People Magazine “Sexiest Man”, he was father to two children, Bindi and Bob. He left The Australia Zoo to his wife and co-star, Terri Irwin.

Steve’s worldwide audience topped half-a-billion people. More than 80 million people have watched him in the U.S. alone. While his bombastic shtick and dangerous antics were too much for some, no one could deny his passion for living, his concern for animals, or his commitment to biodiversity.

Steve is quoted as saying, “I don’t want to just stand there and lecture you about conservation. I want you to come with me! I want you to be energised about it!”

I was 19 years old in 1997, when The Crocodile Hunter debuted in North America. When not working at a local deli, I could be found hiking, playing with animals, or pondering how to spend the rest of my life. I did this while watching television. Though an apathetic, discouraged teenager on the surface, part of me wanted to do Something. And if that Something wound up hedging the sprawl that was gradually destroying my stomping grounds in Northwest Baltimore County, all the better. Steve Irwin’s enthusiastic approach practically grabbed me by the eyeballs and threw me straight into a career in ecology. His showmanship was irresistable, and his sincerity infectious.

But Steve Irwin’s desire to protect the world’s most vulnerable inhabitants killed him in the end. He was stabbed in the heart by a stingray. An expert on venomous animals, Steve must have known that to leave the barb in place would be safer for him. To do that, he would have no choice but to cut off the ray’s tail, killing the animal. Instead, he ripped the stinger from his own chest, letting the ray go. He died immediately after. He made a decision.

Steve Irwin lived and died by his principals. He was a inspirational and beloved figure, even to total strangers. We will miss him as we would a true friend.