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Buy Local to Beat the Downturn
Last month, I interviewed a small business owner in Tyler, Texas, who was boosting business by offering his customers a stimulus check.
Buy Local to Beat the Downturn
Last month, I interviewed a small business owner in Tyler, Texas, who was boosting business by offering his customers a stimulus check. Through that same interview, I learned of a business in Austin, Texas, doing something similar. And now today, I read this Wall Street Journal article that explains how buying local—and rallying consumers around this idea—is the key to beating this recession.
The article cited a survey released in January by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance that found that "community efforts can often at least protect independent companies from the worst of the recession. Independent retailers in cities with buy-local campaigns saw holiday sales drop 3.2% from the previous year, compared with 5.6% in cities without them."
Perhaps one of the biggest buy-local campaigns in the nation is Florida's Backyard Economics program. Spearheaded by NFIB and other business groups, the program encourages Floridians to ...
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