We’ve been covering the recent “Buy Local Orlando” campaign in our post here. A recent Orlando Business Journal article mentioned that the city modeled their program after the one in Austin. The folks in Texas take exception to that. Read below for a statement from the President of that organization.
In response to the recent articles about the City of Orlando’s “Buy Local” program, the Austin Independent Business Alliance (AIBA) would like to clarify information about our organization. Founded in 2002, AIBA is a non-profit that promotes public awareness of the benefits of buying from locally owned business. Our membership includes over 350 locally owned businesses. Our membership does not include chains, franchises or publicly traded companies.
We offer our members an affordable way to promote themselves through our printed directory – “Austin’s Guide to Locally Owned Businesses”; our website – www.IbuyAustin.com, networking events and our “Local Spoken Here” stickers and banners. Our annual “Austin Unchained” event has become a national program called “America Unchained.” The event originated to highlight a study showing that if everyone in Austin shopped only at locally owned business on the mid-November Saturday , there would be an additional $14 million local economic impact from that one day’s sales tax receipts.
Numerous following studies in many parts of the country have confirmed the result that there is a 3.5 times greater local economic impact from shopping at locally owned businesses than from shopping at chains. Most recently a study in Grand Rapids, Michigan showed that moving just 10% of purchases to locally owned businesses creates jobs, revenue for the city, and dramatically impacts the community.
In Austin we like to say that shopping at chains is like stealing from your neighbors.
Steven Bercu, President
Austin Independent Business Alliance (AIBA)
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