Why should you shop local this holiday season?
During one of the busiest shopping times of the year, we at OneCalifornia Bank and Foundation have been reminding our friends and colleagues to shop local and support small, independent businesses as much as possible. Supporting local businesses keeps money cycling through the area and contributes to community development.
When you shop at locally-owned, independent businesses, more money is kept in the community because local businesses are more likely to buy from local suppliers, and service providers. In fact, the most conservative studies indicate that for every $100 that you spent at a locally-owned independent business, $68 of those dollars gets re-spent in the community. That’s $25 (58%) more than if you spent it at a chain headquartered in another city.
The OneCalifornia team isn’t the only one singing the praises of shopping locally. There is an entire movement centered on shopping locally and supporting small, independent businesses. Some of these national organizations include BALLE and AMIBA. Here in the Bay Area, Oakland Grown, Buy Local Berkeley, and SFLOMA are great resources. Want to learn more? See the list of 10 reasons to support local businesses on the Oakland Grown website.
What are some ways to shop local this holiday season? Of course, the foundation’s Oakland Unwrapped! website makes it really easy, where you can shop online from over 160 locally-owned stores and artists - great for late nights and cold days when you prefer to shop online, but want to keep your money local.
We are also hosting a big, festive shopping event on December 10th and 11th to bring all of these shops and more together in one place. Organizations like the Crucible are also hosting shopping events and many Oakland neighborhood shopping districts are hosting strolls, parades, discounts and later hours to allow you the chance to shop there instead of at the mall. Most of these shopping events feature live musical entertainment, fun kid activities, and food from local restaurants, so there are plenty of reasons to check them out! The Oakland Grown website lists Oakland Shopping events, and we’ve been blogging about upcoming shopping events as well. There are plenty of resources out there to help you shop local–so make it your holiday shopping resolution to support your local economy by shopping locally! In fact, we encourage you to take the Oakland Grown pledge to try to do all of your shopping with locally-owned independent businesses and artists.
Tags: local, local economy, Oakland, shop, shop local, Socially Responsible
