Think Local
By Colleen Suglich
This morning I was reading the paper and was intrigued by an article. The article was in USA Weekend and is titled “Local and Loving it.” The statistic that sparked my attention reads: “Of every $100 spent in a chain store, $14 goes into the LOCAL economy. For a LOCALLY owned business $45 goes back - a tremendous return on your investment. In today’s economy, this is an unheard of return on an investment.”
After reading the article and checking out some of the suggested Web sites, I have decided to share not only this fantastic idea of investing in our own community but also some ways to do it. The first site www.localfirstchicago.org has some of our better known businesses listed. It is a place where more should be listed for our neighboring communities. A second site, www.etsy.com allows more than 200,000 craftspeople from around the world to sell handmade goods. You can click on “shop local” to find sellers who live near you. Another under-used site is Craig’s list. We recently purchased a used piano from a couple of blocks away through the list. We not only got a wonderful piano, we used a local piano mover and a local piano tuner to complete our project.
A unique site listed in the article is www.freecycle.org. As the web address implies, it is a place to list free things instead of throwing them out, only to land in a land fill.
The author of the article suggests starting small, perhaps making a birthday all local. Either going out to dinner local (Franconella’s, Café 103, Koda) or preparing dinner with things purchased from a local store (County Fair), or picking something up locally (Swanson’s, Fox’s, Callabria) and ending with a beautiful locally-baked cake (Beverly Bakery, Wolf’s, Pierre’s). Not only having a delightful meal, but investing in our future. What a great way to prepare for our children’s futures investing in the local business just good sense. I think I am going to make it my New Year’s resolution!
FROM THE EDITOR: Also, keep clicking on www.Beverlytoday.com, we will be adding a
"For Sale"
page soon. Details in future editions.
Speaking of doing it local......check out
Sonoma - New coffee shop at 2845 West 95th - great coffee!
