By The Salt Lake Tribune Monday, August 7, 2006.
An interview with:
Betsy Burton
Buy Local First Utah Chairwoman
Owner of The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City.
"Explain how patronizing locally owned businesses brings hometown advantages.
A dollar spent in a locally owned, independent business recirculates in the local economy over three times more than that same dollar spent in a national chain. Since chains hire attorneys, accountants, advertising firms, etc. at their national headquarters, most money spent for maintenance of their business leaves the local economy. Locally owned businesses rely on other local businesses for this support, and the dollars stay here. Perhaps even more important, those dollars shape the character of your community.
With grocery-store chains buying locally grown produce and local franchising, define the modern mom and pop businesses.
We draw a line between locally owned, independently operated businesses and national or multi–national chains, not because chains are bad, but because local businesses are the cornerstone of our community. And the term "mom and pop" doesn’t begin to define our constituency. We support not only local growers and producers of local goods and services but also the retail stores and offices that bring the products and ideas of the rest of the world to our community. Our organization also embraces local businesses that serve markets beyond our region yet choose to call Utah home.
Connect the campaign to your own struggle against book mega–chains and Internet retailers described in your book, The King’s English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller.
In the early 1990s, before the onslaught of so-called superstores, independent bookstores flourished alongside chains. In the ensuing decade all but two of the locally owned, general bookstores went out of business. Then a group of locally owned independent businesses of all kinds banded together to form The Vest Pocket Business Coalition. We made the case that chains and the developers who sponsored them were receiving preferential treatment from city, county, and state governments in the form of tax increment financing and Redevelopment Agency monies. We pointed out that they were not bringing new business to the community but rather supplanting already–existing business by driving out local competition, and using our own tax dollars to do so. The fact that The King’s English flourishes in a sea of chains is testament to the value our customers place on service, knowledge, and on connection to community. The same may be said of thousands of locally owned independent businesses throughout the city and state.
How far have you come since Buy Local First Utah was launched?
In the year since Buy Local First Utah "went public," we’ve signed on almost 650 business partners, created an awareness of the importance of locally owned, independent business and held two major campaigns. We also plan to create a Local First directory that will be a hard–copy version of our online directory, www.localfirst.org."
