Spending Locally

Studies have shown that when you shop locally, about 68% of what you spend stays in the community. This is due both to the sales tax revenue that goes directly to the city, and because the local shop owner in return spends the money on employees and on personal expenditures locally.

With an awareness of this impact, I have made a commitment to spending locally whenever possible, and make conscious decisions about all my purchases and decide whether I can make a local purchase vs. spending outside the Lafayette borders. So far, I’m finding that I just have to plan ahead a little each day but I can find an alternative and I end up feeling better about my purchases.

For example, I used to put off getting gas until I was headed into work in the morning, and the gas station is easily accessible in and out, but that gas station is actually in Louisville. There isn’t another gas station in Lafayette that’s convenient to get to on the way to work because they’re all on the wrong side of the street and involve a lot of left turns & lights and turning around, etc. However, if I just go the night before when I notice I am low on gas, then I can stop in Lafayette on the way home and still purchase my gas locally.

Groceries are another area where I have to plan ahead. There is a grocery store immediately across from my office in Boulder, so it’s very easy to run over there at lunch, for snacks, etc. In order to spend more locally, I have to make sure I get to the grocery store (or stores) in Lafayette and have what I need to make lunch without having to make a lot of extra trips (and spend all that money) in Boulder during each week.

While I wan to encourage everyone to spend locally, I fully recognize that the available local options need to be compelling and comprehensive to enable people to make that choice. Of course, there will likely be some specialty stores outside of the town for items that simply are not available in town, but we should try to expand the local offerings to fill those needs for the local community. I feel that if businesses know that Lafayette residents put a high priority on shopping locally, and if we have a concrete program in place to show local support, Lafayette will be able to attract businesses over neighboring communities.

I am doing an experiment to see what percentage of my discretionary (i.e. not bills) spending I can keep local, and be able to identify what is spent outside Lafayette for certain items. If we can all commit to a certain percentage, I think it can make a big impact. I’ll post more on this over the next couple of months, and I’d like to hear from you, so please comment if you’d like to join this commitment, or if you’re already doing something similar, I’d love to hear about your experiences.