January 26, 2009

Why Buy Austin?  Sustainable shopping starts by shopping locally!

1. Protect our "Austin-ness"
Austin is unique.  It is the only city we know of where it is a favorite pastime to sit around and talk about how great it is to live here. By choosing to support locally owned businesses, you help keep Austin different from "anytown" USA.  Whether your moto is "Keep Austin Weird" or "Keep Austin Wonderful", we all want to Keep Austin Special and Unique.  When you buy from an Austin Based Business with the freedom to offer products and services based on the needs and desires of Austinites, not a national sales plan, you promote diversity and choices.

2. Good Neighbors
Locally owned businesses are run by your neighbors.  They live here and are raising their families here too!  They have a vested interest in building strong neighborhoods and insuring a good quality of life, right here where they live, in Central Texas.  They contribute to local causes, attend local houses of worship and send their kids to public schools.  Since they are your neighbors they use the same roads, the same transportation and go to the same hospitals as you.  

3. Benefiting our Local Economy
Shopping a locally owned businesses puts three times the dollars into our economy.  A landmark study found that of $100 spent at a local business, $45 stays in the community.  But that same $100 spent at a chain store would put only $13 in our local economy.  Don't give your money away, keep it in our community.

 4. More Jobs and Good Wages
Locally owned businesses buy their goods and services from other locally owned businesses, linking our community in a web of economic growth.  Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in many sectors, such as retail, provide better wages and benefits than chains do.

5. Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship has always been fundamental to America's economic innovation and prosperity and it is part of our National Identity and the American Dream.  Small business serve as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class and beyond.
 
6.  Sales Tax
Local Sales Tax pays for the services and programs and infrastructure that run our city.  Until a different tax system is implemented, buying locally and paying your sales tax is the most direct way to support your city roads, transportation, police and fire departments and libraries.  

7. Competition
Republicans and Democrats agree:  A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.

*For more information on buying locally in Austin Texas and the study referenced, please visit www.Ibuyaustin.com.

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