Keep it local, keep it strong

For the owner of Bedouin, one of Sisters’ linchpin retail establishments, this is more than a slogan to promote shopping at her boutique. Thomas is walking the walk. She has cancelled her Amazon Prime membership, and she strives to spend every dollar she can in the local community that supports her business. That means food, business services, cleaning supplies — all the things that go into keeping a business running.

What Thomas recognizes is that “shopping small” and keeping it local has an outsized impact. Data is variable, but analysts are pretty consistent in finding that for every $100 spent locally, more than $60 gets reinvested — spent — in the local economy. When you spend at big box stores or online outside the community, that reinvestment goes down to about $30 — or less. Each dollar spent in the local community circulates four to seven times through other local businesses. Dollars spent at Amazon don’t.

A thriving small business community is vital to the overall health of a small town — every bit as important as good schools. In fact, the two go hand in hand. Local businesses sponsor school programs and youth sports teams; they form an important part of the tax base that funds schools and municipal services. They employ people who have important roles in the community. Businesses sponsor the events that give Sisters its character. It is good to see neighbors prosper.

Through the months of August and September, The Nugget is putting a spotlight on local business in a “Keep It Local” campaign. We’re expanding our coverage of the local business community (so if you’ve got a good story idea, let us know) and we’re offering advertising incentives for businesses to get their message out to the community. For some of this work, we’re partnering with the Small Business Association here in town, which is working to help local businesses find resources, networking and educational opportunities to help them succeed and thrive.

Nugget readers can support their local business community in a variety of ways. Get out and explore. There’s a lot happening at Sisters businesses, and it makes a pleasant day to go out to eat and visit local stores. You might be surprised at what you find. And it is a joy to develop relationships with business owners, some of whom helped make Sisters a community that draws people to visit and to move here, some of whom are just embarking on a long-held dream.

Just allocating a few more dollars to mindful, local shopping can make a big difference. You don’t necessarily have to follow Harmony Thomas’ program — just a little bit of effort can make an important difference, especially if we all pull together.

I like to use Amazon.com as a research tool — I research a product there, then try to find it through one of our local businesses. Most of the time, I can get what I’m hunting for locally, or they can find it for me.

Your support of The Nugget helps us support local businesses. While our costs continue to rise, we have held steady on our advertising rates because we know we can’t simply pass those cost burdens on to our advertisers, who are facing rising costs across the board. Direct support from readers in the form of Supporting Contributions is vital to continuing the work of the newspaper, which is, itself, a long-time part of Sisters’ small business community.

The Nugget is free to read, but it costs money to produce. We pay our small, dedicated staff, we pay our contributing freelancers, we pay for our printing and distribution, and we have the same kind of overhead costs that any small business does. Readers who value the paper and make direct supporting contributions help us cover the cost of reporting the news and serving as an opinion platform for the community.

You can make supporting contributions at http://www.nuggetnews.com, send a check to P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR, 97759, or stop by the office at 442 E. Main Ave.

Connect with the Sisters Business Association and support their mission at http://www.sistersba.com.

Working together, we can build prosperity and vibrancy in our community. Keep it local, and keep it strong.