Thursday, November 13, 2003

Small retailers join in promotion
'Break the chain habit' is slogan for Saturday shop-locally promotion

By Claudia Grisales
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Cafe Mundi, an eclectic coffeehouse on East Fifth Street, is celebrating five years in business this month. Its owners are hoping for many more.

Customers from across the city make the trek to the cafe to grab a drink or a bite to eat, take in a poetry reading or musical performance, and relax in the cafe's garden.

"The sense of community you get when you go to Cafe Mundi is one of the most important things," said Hans Dietrich, who co-owns the cafe with his wife, Jessica Nieri. "I hate to refer to `Cheers,' but we do go by a lot of first names."

Cafe Mundi is participating in Saturday's "Austin Unchained" event, a promotion to encourage Austinites to shop at locally owned stores and break the chain-store habit.

The event is being organized by the Austin Independent Business Alliance, a coalition of more than 200 local businesses. Participating businesses include Waterloo Records & Video
"I believe it's an incredible opportunity to pump millions into the local economy without doing much other than asking if the business is locally owned," said Steve Bercu, who heads the alliance. Bercu is also co-owner of BookPeople, a downtown bookstore. "We are supporting the businesses that add character to the city."

There's no way to calculate the impact on Central Texas communities if people shopped only at locally owned stores Saturday. Civic Economics, a consulting firm, estimates that retail sales regionwide will total about $45 million that day.

Spending more of that money at local stores instead of at chains means more profit stays in the community, Bercu said. And there is an intangible benefit of supporting local businesses.
"People want a unique environment in Austin. Much of the character comes from locally owned business. If people want to have those things, they have to patronize them. They can't exist in a vacuum," Bercu said. Locally owned businesses are under increasing pressure from a less-than-robust economy and the proliferation of national chain and big-box retailers.

"The economy is putting the squeeze on everybody," said Tim Hurst, who owns Movin' Easy Dancewear, with stores on West 30th Street and on RM 620 near Lakeline Mall. "There are less jobs for people. There are lower-paying jobs that people are getting, so they have less to spend. That puts pressure on them to go to the chains."

Hurst contends that smaller businesses are built on the premise of meeting specific customer needs, while larger chain stores aren't.

Promotions to get people to shop at local stores are held in other cities. In Tampa, Fla., local businesses host an "Independents Week" during the week of the Fourth of July.

But Jeff Milchen, outreach director of the American Independent Business Alliance, based in Bozeman, Mont., said it will take more than one-day promotions to help change shopping habits.
"You are not going to change people's perspectives in a one-shot deal," he said. "It comes as a result of people thinking about the impact of their purchasing decisions on an ongoing basis. More often than not, people's overall value comes from locally, independently owned businesses rather than the corporation chains, especially when you get them to look beyond the cheapest prices."

Dietrich said the advance of chains and big-box stores "sucks the soul out of communities. It paints the picture that it's anywhere, U.S.A., and wherever you go, it's the same, the same picture, the same scene. And that doesn't say a lot about a community."

cgrisales@statesman.com; 912-5933