Keep The Dollars Close
Local shopping areas, such as the Libbie and Grove corridor, support jobs in the area and pay taxes that boost the economy.
If your shopping antennae have picked up a buzz about the 3/50 Project, don’t go looking for a new shop with that name. It’s not a place, but an idea that’s all about supporting the independent stores and businesses that exist in your neighborhood.
The project is simple: Ask yourself what three independently owned businesses you would miss if they disappeared. Then make an effort to keep them in business: Spend $50 a month in your favorite places.
If you think there’s not much to the idea, think again. According to the project’s promotional materials, if even half the employed population would spend $50 each month in locally owned independent stores, it would generate more than $42.6 billion in revenue. And for every $100 spent in such stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures.
The 3/50 Project began as a post on Minneapolis entrepreneur Cinda Baxter’s blog, AlwaysUpward.com. The message “went viral” and spawned its own site, the350project.net. Locally, the cause has been taken up by Sarah Paxton, vice president of sales and finance at locally owned furniture store La Difference, who took the idea to the Retail Merchants Association of Greater Richmond. The merchants association is blending it into their own similar program.
While the project is easy to understand – do your spending in the local economy – there is usually one main question: What is an independent? While the Web site gives the answer in depth, the consensus definition for the project is that the business sells retail, is owned by people who live in the community and has a brick-and-mortar presence.
National chains, franchises and home-based businesses are not included, but that leaves plenty of places under the umbrella – dry cleaners, hair stylists, restaurants, bookstores, wine shops, boutiques and the like.
“This is a plan that is all about balance,” Paxton wrote in a LaDiff blog. She acknowledges that perhaps not everything the consumer wants can be found locally.
“But there are quite a few purchases we make each month – from groceries to dining out to buying wine to gardening supplies – where we can, should and will make a conscious effort to support our locally owned and operated businesses,” said Paxton.
This article originally published in Discover Richmond. Click here to view more Discover articles, or send us an e-mail to request a copy of the magazine.
Please sign in to respond | | Register