When you consider that for every $100 spent at a locally-owned business, $73 remains in the local economy compared to the $43 remaining when you shop a national chain, the answer is, yes, it matters greatly—small and local businesses are the backbone of our economy.
Local means business. Would it surprise you to know that local eateries return nearly 79% of revenues to the community, compared to just over 30% for chain restaurants? A recent study shows local profits can increase the community’s wealth, tax revenue, and standard of living, not to mention that these very businesses serve local people who in turn tend to stay local and raise families.
Families and a brighter future—that’s plenty of reason to keep it local, but there’s more:
Keep More Jobs Local.
When you shop small and local you spend money that has a two-fold return in that you help pay the employee wages of that business while also putting money back into the local economy, paying local suppliers and supporting job creation at other affiliated businesses.
Keep Local Lively.
When you shop small and local you help preserve the personality of your community and champion its unique culture and character, keeping it lively and original. By supporting shops that feature local artisans and farm-to-table restaurants and local cafes that use local ingredients, you help sustain what you love about our community.
Keep Tax Revenue Local.
Never underestimate the power of community. Small and local businesses generate property and sales taxes that in turn pay for our parks, roads, school systems and other community initiatives and programs that impact the lives of you, your friends and your family.
Local Supports Non-Profits.
When you keep your business small and local, you help become its keeper, too. If you don’t think a community is capable of caring for its disadvantaged, consider that non-profits receive up to 350% more money from local shops than from non-locally-owned businesses, with a significant portion of support from local business owners.
Reduced Environmental Impact.
Rather than rely on national supply chains to transport goods at a significant cost, small and local businesses are more likely to buy local which means less pollution, habitat loss, and resource depletion, and that all adds up to less impact on the environment.
Keep Local Growing. If you want San Antonio and our local communities to continue to develop, we must lean-in locally and support small and local business ventures. Let’s pay it forward down the street and help keep our local business scene vibrant, culturally relevant, and fundamentally central. Please stop by your neighborhood Financial Health Center and let’s chat about ways we can help, or just to chat about how we all have an impact on our community.
