The most popular definition of local buying is buying products that are within 100 miles of your business. Local purchasing is crucial to creating and sustaining thriving local economies. Buying locally keeps money within the community, allowing for small and medium businesses to compete with larger businesses. Further, buying locally creates shorter transit for business supply chains. This decreases the amount of miles that products have to travel from natural resources to storefront. Therefore, buying locally for your supply chain allows businesses to decrease their dependability on fossil fuels for transit and inputs into a business.
The following are some more reasons outlined by the New Rules Project regarding why buying locally benefits businesses:
- Buying local will maintain local character and prosperity. If you are a small or medium sized business, buying local will increase the viability of small and medium business and maintain the character of the community.
- Buying local creates vibrant town centers, links neighbors, and creates networks of local businesses with good relationships.
- Strong local businesses allow local people to make important economic decisions within the community.
- Perhaps most importantly, buying locally keeps dollars in the local economy. This keeps dollars going from one local business to the next.
- Buying locally creates and keeps more jobs in the community.
- Creating a vibrant local economy with a town center leads to more sustainable communities where businesses are within walking distance to other businesses and to residential areas.
- This link is an article on food miles and the importance of buying locally. While it is important to consider buying food more locally, it is equally important for businesses to consider how they can buy as many of their materials as possible locally.
- This is a link of ten reasons to buy local list, developed by Sustainable Connections.
- This is a link of reasons to buy local developed by the New Rules Project.