We love Ann Arbor!  …don’t you?

 

Buy Local Ann Arbor is all about boosting the local economy.

 

“It’s about providing a little motivation to get residents, who already know that shopping locally is important, to actively do so.”

Buy Local Ann Arbor is, in essence, a grass-roots association of locally-owned businesses.  Our website directory, City Guide app and loyalty card offer sellers and buyers an easy retail campaign that’s good for Ann Arbor.  We know that shifting a fraction of our spending away from the national chain stores makes a tremendous difference in the viability of the businesses that make our beautiful Ann Arbor so unique.  The weak economy is tough on our smaller local merchants and it behooves us to help support those near us.

The Buy Local Ann Arbor {Rewards} Card will constantly motivate us to keep our dollars in town by patronizing our locally-owned, shops, restaurants and other business.

Businesses who participate in the campaign provide “rewards” to card holders.  Consumers –  who shop with a purpose – search for and discover who the locally-owned businesses are via the directory on the website and show the card to receive discounts and specials listed there.

Every purchase, Washtenaw consumers make, influences our retail landscape.  Our already existing “Buy Local” attitude has had a positive impact in town. But, with a slight additional change in behavior, the impact could be huge. Just as individuals’ recycling efforts over the years have produced astonishing collective results, so, too, can their retail purchasing efforts.

A mere 10% shift in consumer spending, from chains and the Internet, to locally-owned retail, would create hundreds of new jobs and more than $78 million in increased economic output for the Ann Arbor area. Consumers don’t have to spend more, just spend differently.

Locally-owned businesses reinvest in the local economy at a 60% higher rate than chain and Internet retailers. They support other local business professionals and retailers – attorneys, bookkeepers, accountants, architects, web designers, printers, caterers, and restaurants, to name a few – that chain and Internet retailers don’t.

Given the clear economic value of locally-owned businesses to Ann Arbor, city leaders and policy makers have an opportunity to contribute to our future, through close collaboration with associations such as the DDA, TLF, and this one, zoning and permit procedures, business incentives, and city and county government purchases.  A shift in consumer spending by city and county employees alone could have a measurable impact while providing both motivation and leadership to Ann Arbor residents and visitors.

You would have to agree that our local merchants provide incredible retail diversity and local charm, two reasons so many people want to live and visit here.  People already know the importance of thinking “local first” from excellent organizations like Think Local First of Washtenaw County.  They simply need a good list to work from {The Directory} and a little motivation {The Card}.  Buy Local Ann Arbor steps-up to provide residents with both.

Buy Local Ann Arbor.com and the Rewards Card program were founded by, and are administered by, hyperLOCAL Connections, LLC, an Ann Arbor-based business with twenty-year resident, Gint Gaska, as founder.