Studies

Survey finds support for "Buy Local" boosted holiday spending at independent stores  January, 2008
Key finding: Independent retailers in cities with active "Buy Local" campaigns reported much larger increases in holiday sales on average than those in cities without such campaigns.

The San Francisco Retail Diversity Study  May, 2007
Key finding: A slight shift in San Francisco consumer purchasing behavior - diverting just 10% of purchases from national chain stores to locally owned businesses - would, each year, create 1,300 new jobs and yield nearly $200 million in incremental economic activity.

Andersonville Study of Retail Economics  October, 2004
Key findings: For every $100 spent with a local business, $68 stays in the Chicago economy; but for every $100 spent at a chain store, only $43 stays in the city. Moreover, for every square foot occupied by a local business, the local economic impact is $179, versus only $105 for a chain store.

Sante Fe Independent Business Report  November, 2003
Key findings: Dollars spent at independent businesses deliver twice the economic impact of those spent at national chains. However, national chains in Santa Fe are growing faster than independents - 2.5 times faster - and bring new competition and pressure to the small business community.

The Economic Impact of Locally Owned Businesses vs. Chains: A Case Study in Mid-Coast Maine  September, 2003
Key findings: Locally owned businesses spent 44.6 percent of their revenue within the surrounding counties, and another 8.7 percent elsewhere in Main, largely on wages and benefits paid to local employees, goods and servies purchased from other local businesses, profits that accrued to local owners, and taxes paid to local and state government. Meanwhile, big-box retailers return only 14.1 percent of their revenue to the local economy, mostly as payroll. The rest leaves the state, flowing to out-of-state suppliers and back to corporate headquarters.

Economic Impact Analysis: Local Merchants vs. Chain Retailers in Austin, Texas  December, 2002
Key finding: For every $100 in consumer spending at a national chain bookstore in Austin, the total economic impact was only $13. However, the same amount spent at locally owned bookstores yielded $45, or more than three times the local economic impact.

Information and economic impact studies about the importance of supporting locally-owned businesses can be found at http://www.livingeconomies.org/localfirst/studies/