|
The meaning of 'local': Studies find more money stays in area
Jun 21, 2009 (The Gazette - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
A sk Tony Kassouf how to determine if a business is local and he will ask: "Where does the buck stop?" Kassouf, co-owner of Cibo Fusion Restaurant & Lounge, 685 Marion Blvd. in Marion, is an ardent proponent of shopping for goods and services at locally owned businesses.
"Anything where the buck leaves Cedar Rapids and goes somewhere else, that's not local," he said.
"We make an extra effort to buy locally. We buy some of our food at the farmers market and we get our organic bison burgers from animals raised in Tama. We could buy some of our supplies from Davenport . . . but that would not be local." Buying local has become a national trend in recent years and some Eastern Iowans are following that trend, making conscious decisions to shop locally for goods and services to keep money, tax revenue and jobs in their communities.
But determining what "local" means is not so easy.
Some might consider Doug Christner, owner of Vernon Village True Value Hardware in Cedar Rapids and North Liberty True Value Hardware, to be a national retailer.
But Christner disagrees, pointing out that he owns his stores and decides the mix of merchandise they sell.
"True Value is not a franchise. It's a cooperative with a very large warehouse," he said.
"We order probably 90 percent of our merchandise through True Value, but we also try to buy as much as we can locally." Christner said Batteries Included in Swisher supplies the batteries sold in his stores and Yeoman
To see more of The Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.gazetteonline.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids,
Iowa Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Back Small Business VoIP Global Community's Homepage ]
|
SUBSCRIPTIONS
TMCnet LOGIN
WEBINARS
