THE RURBAN FRINGE

Shop Local This Small Business Saturday

Holiday season is ramping up, with stores hauling out their seasonal displays and people brushing off their credit cards in anticipation – or dread – of Christmas shopping excursions.
This year, American Express is once again leading the promotion of the Small Business Saturday initiative, encouraging people to focus on supporting their local small businesses which, in [...]

Buy Local Campaigns Make a Difference

A US survey of independent businesses found that those in communities with an active ‘buy local’ campaign experienced significantly stronger revenue growth in 2010 compared to those located in areas without one.
From the accompanying press release:
“The survey, which was conducted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance over an 8-day period in January, gathered data from [...]

Focus on Creating Value for Local Customers

I’ve heard it said there is no silver bullet to sustainable living, but rather a toolbox to pick and choose your methods from.
One method of mine is to ‘buy local’ as I view sustainable consumerism as intentional consumerism. 
Yet on the flip side, virtually no local economies today are fully self-sustaining.  Cheap manufacturing elsewhere, cheap big box [...]

Do ‘Buy Local’ Campaigns Work?

To try and slow the flow of dollars leaving a community, many local organizations or municipalities initiate a ‘Buy Local’ campaign with the intent to either raise awareness of the impact of lost local retail sales or make citizens feel guilty for shopping out-of-town.
But do these campaigns actually work?
Research suggests that they do.  I know [...]