HiBA joins national holiday campaign to support shopping at local merchants

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The Heights Independent Business Alliance has joined an unprecedented national effort to encourage residents and businesses to buy from local independent merchants for the holiday season.

Called Shift Your Shopping, the campaign represents more than 38,000 locally owned and independent businesses across the U.S. and Canada, and offers a simple way to boost the local economy and preserve and create jobs in the Heights.

"We're asking consumers to shift your holiday shopping to where it matters most: your friends and neighbors at locally-owned businesses," said Megan Johnson, interim director of the Heights Independent Business Alliance. "The money spent on items, such as food, cards, gifts, and flowers, over this season will make a considerable impact on our community with a simple shift toward considering local stores and restaurants first."

Americans spend about $700 per shopper between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, according to the National Retail Federation. Numerous studies show that if those dollars are shifted to locally owned, independent businesses, they'll generate far more economic benefit in local communities than money spent at local chain outlets or businesses outside the community.

Shift Your Shopping encourages residents to take job creation and economic concerns into their own hands by exercising their power to strengthen their local economies. For example, a 2008 study of Kent County Michigan by Civic Economics Consultancy projected that shifting just 10 percent of the county's per capita spending from chains to locally-owned independent businesses would create “almost $140 million in new economic activity and 1,600 new jobs for the region.”

Annual surveys over the last four years show places that “go local” do better. For example, last year, the Institute for Local Self Reliance gathered data from nearly 2,800 independent business. That data revealed independent businesses in communities executing long-term "buy local and independent" campaigns averaged year-over-year sales growth of 5.6 percent – more than double the 2.1 percent reported by independent businesses in areas lacking such campaigns. All of those campaigns operated with support from the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) and/or Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE).

Shift Your Shopping combines the efforts of AMIBA and BALLE with more than 150 local business alliances comprised of over 38,000 local businesses. 

"Beyond the economic impacts, Shift Your Shopping is also about celebrating the uniqueness of your community," said Jennifer Rockne, AMIBA director. "By shifting the focus of holiday shopping to locally owned, independent businesses, we can strengthen our communities and economy, create more jobs and - equally important - we can enjoy more relaxed and rewarding experiences doing holiday shopping."

Visit www.shophiba.org to learn more about the Heights Independent Business Alliance, become a member, and help spread the word.