Surviving as a small business is no easy feat as big box stores and national chains continue to change the retail landscape but there is a growing movement to help save local shops, reports NEWS1130. The idea is to remind consumers that local, independent, brick-and-mortar businesses only exist because of consumers, says Cinda Baxter, founder and CEO of The 3/50 Project which promotes stronger local economies through support of independent retailers and the consumers who shop with them.
The idea is simple, the report continues. The 3/50 Project suggests that consumers think of three independent, locally owned businesses they don’t want to lose and do business with them. The 50 part of the equation is the amount consumers are asked to spend at those businesses. “If we each look at what we are currently spending monthly, not new money but what we are already budgeting for, and we each earmark $50 to spend at a local, independent merchant, it has a significant impact. So it’s ‘pick three, spend 50, save your local economy’,” Baxter reportedly says. According to the NEWS1130 article, studies in the US suggest that for every $100 spent at an independent, locally owned business, an average $68 comes back into the local community through things like salary, taxes and related business expenditures.
The 3/50 Project provides free marketing material to business owners and doesn’t charge for listings on its website. The organization embraces any local, independent merchant, whether they are retail, restaurant, a service provider, salon or any other business. There is also an iPhone app that lists independent, brick-and-mortar businesses that support the project.