Local First & The 10 Percent Shift

Lowcountry Local First came about around the time I was pitching my previous employer a "Shop Local" online/print guide to locally owned business organized by products and services. That idea went nowhere, but LLF has been growing and becoming increasingly influential ever since. Tonight I attended my first meeting at One Cool Blow for a speech by Laury Hammel.

The shtick for the Local First movement is as simple as it is profound: Spend $100 with local independent businesses and $45 stays in the community (where it's subject to the local multiplier effect). Spend that same $100 with a national chain and only $15 sticks around. The rest "leaks" right out of town.

The movement is well under way, and its next step (a change from "building awareness" to "real, concrete behavioral change") is the "Ten Percent Shift." You sign a pledge to shift -- not expand -- 10 percent of your budgeted spending from national chains to local independents.

What's that worth to Charleston? Well, a study in Grand Rapids, Mich., concluded it would mean 1,600 new jobs, $53 million in wages, and a $137 million economic impact. Our MSA is home to about 640,00 people. Grand Rapids' is about 777,000. Your mileage may vary.

Hammel quotes after the jump.

"Maybe the key isn't how much we spend, but where we spend it."

"Where you spend your money is a very personal statement about where your values are."

"Even the most obnoxious local independents contribute to the community, whether they mean to or not."

"Yeah, I'm preaching to the choir. But I want to convert that choir."

"As local businesses, we're always giving contributions, in-kind contributions, to local groups... and what I hate is when I find out that the same person that came in to ask for that money is shopping at a national chain, because it costs less. That's a break in the social contract."

"This is a new economy. We're never going back to where we were a year ago, to that... phantom economy, where phantom wealth was produced. (Local independents) are the ones creating the wealth, we're the ones producing the jobs... Our goal is to make sure that new economy is strong with local, strong with green, and making a difference in our communities."

"Collectively we've got more (economic) impact than the big companies, but they've got all this centralized power. So we've got to get organized."

And finally:

"I think it's a real trap to focus too much on your politicians. Politicians don't get it? Fine. Forget them. If you can get 10,000 people to sign that pledge, you're going to see some magic happen. If you get 10,000 people to sign that pledge, I guarantee you you'll see the politicians come around."

Look folks, this is pretty simple stuff. We can have all the differences in the world, but here's a place where we all share the same interest. The healthier our local economies, the better off we all are, the more empowered we are to solve our own problems, and the less beholden we are to paymasters who can bail on us the moment they get a better contract in Indonesia. Not to mention the food tastes better.

Charleston is a great place with great people and some great, unique businesses. Let's spread the word and get behind the folks who are leading this movement. And while there's no local pledge for us to sign yet, count me as pre-pledged.

In other words, this is the backlash against the Wal-Mart strip-mining of the American economy we've long awaited. My hero Walter Biffle would be proud.

Comments

[Pam]

I'm in.