May 2005
Local matters:
How you spend your money is about more than dollars
by Charles Vane
Study after study has shown that more of the money you spend at local businesses stays in your community than money spent at big box and chain stores. But numbers, no matter how convincing, never tell the whole story. There are very real, tangible and human benefits to buying locally that go far beyond simple economics.
Several organizations in Albuquerque and in Santa Fe are taking strides to get people to buy locally — not just because of the abstract ‘impact numbers,’ but because it’s a clear win–win situation and it just makes sense. They are taking the lead in more ways than one. Not only are these organizations of locally owned businesses working to convince their customers of the benefits of local buying, they are buying locally themselves.
Steve Paternoster is the owner of Scalo restaurant and the current president of Albuquerque Originals, an organization of nearly 40 locally owned and operated restaurants dedicated to increasing the public’s awareness of the benefits of shopping locally. The restaurants of Albuquerque Originals run the gamut from long–time favorites like Scalo and Monroe’s to newer places like Zinc. Paternoster thinks the key is not to quote numbers but to emphasize community.
“We employ 50 people,” Paternoster says. “If a locally–owned business employs 50 people, that’s 50 families in the community who are making it because of customers buying locally.”
Of course companies like Wal–Mart always cite the jobs they bring to a community when they open a new store. Unfortunately their corporate line doesn’t hold up in the real world. Multiple national studies have shown that new “big box” stores actually displace more local jobs than they create, and the jobs lost are often at higher wages than the jobs gained. But locally–owned businesses like the restaurants of Albuquerque Originals bring much more to their communities than jobs. They re–spend their dollars at other local businesses and they bring charitable support to local nonprofits.
“If you care about [the concept of] community, then you support your community,” Paternoster says. “I set pricing so that I can pay a good wage, use local purveyors, support what the Nob Hill community is passionate about and, hopefully, make a fair profit. We support Monte Vista Elementary, the local church, other local nonprofits because they’re great organizations, but also because they are part of our community.”
Paternoster says working for a locally– owned business also improves one’s quality of life. “I’ve worked in the chain world,” he says. “It’s interesting, the money is good, but it does nothing for you internally. Buying locally, I work just as hard, just as many hours, but somehow my quality of life is better. I feel better.
“My bread comes from Fano [Bread Company in Albuquerque ], my produce from local organic farmers like Chispas Farms [in the South Valley ], and it all tastes better. Nothing is sweeter than doing business with a local purveyor and then having that purveyor bring in local business for you.”
Rob Wells, the executive chef at Scalo, goes even farther. “It’s important to develop a relationship with your customers and with your purveyors, to recycle as much as you can back into the community,” Wells says. “I live in the neighborhood, my purveyors live and work in the area, it all comes back.”
Wells has set up a program where even the compost at Scalo stays local. His cooks toss every scrap of vegetable trimmings they can into special bins that go right back to the organic farmers he buys his produce from. The farmers then compost the restaurant’s waste, creating a real–world parallel to the concept of recycling local economy dollars. And the community at large reaps another benefit: “[W]e’ve managed to cut in half our solid waste taken by the city,” said Wells.
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Keeping local flavor tasty
David Caseman echoes the sentiments of supporting the local community with local business dollars, but he would add another element to the equation: uniqueness. Caseman is the co–founder of the Santa Fe Alliance, a group of locally owned Santa Fe businesses that are dedicated to spreading the “buy local” concept.
“In Santa Fe , tourism is so important, such a crucial part of our economy,” Caseman says. “Tourists come here for the unique arts and crafts, for the handcrafted items from all of the artisans of New Mexico ’s different cultures. It’s different from what you can get anywhere else. The local businesses that depend on this uniqueness are hurt every time a chain moves in. With a chain, you know what you’re going to get, and it’s the same across the country. So why come to visit Santa Fe ?”
Caseman uses the analogy of water, a resource New Mexicans understand better than most. New Mexico survives its droughts in part because of our effort to re–use the water that comes in from Colorado , before it flows out into Texas . If we use, treat and re–use that water three times, we have tripled its value — much in the way a dollar has triple the impact on the economy if it’s spent at a local business. “Dollars are just a form of energy,” Caseman says. “We want that energy to stay in the state, not leak out.”
Caseman is also passionate about the loss of human capital when a local business closes. “A town’s leadership can be lost,” he says. “Local business owners are often the ones that give to local churches, that serve on town councils, that support local nonprofits. If these owners lose their stores, they may find jobs at the chains that drove them out, but the human asset is lost, the disposable income that used to go straight back to the community is lost.”
Caseman also echoed Paternoster on what buying locally can do on a personal level. “When you know who you’re doing business with, that connection does something for you at a deeper level. You know that business’ practices, who they employ, you know that what you’re buying didn’t come from somewhere with sweatshop wages.”
A cycle of nurturing
Elissa Breitbard, owner of Betty’s Bath and Day Spa in the North Valley , is president of the Albuquerque Independent Business Alliance, a counterpart to the Santa Fe Alliance. Breitbard’s take on the whole “buy local” issue parallels that of Caseman and Paternoster, but as you might expect from the owner of a spa, it is couched in terms of nurturing.
“There are monetary reasons to buy locally of course,” Breitbard says, “and the numbers and financial impact are important, but there are social and cultural reasons as well. When you shop locally you support your neighbors and your friends. You nurture your community. They might know your name at a chain store, but at a small local business they know your name, and the name of your kid’s little league team, and they’ll support them.”
Breitbard is firm in her belief that buying locally is a two–way street — that local business owners need to step up to the plate by offering better customer service, a better ratio of employees to customers, and local support. “It is incumbent on local businesses to have the best service, and it is incumbent on consumers to support that in return.” Like other business–owners working to further awareness of the impact of local buying, she puts her money where her mouth is. Betty’s buys all of its robes from a South Valley cooperative, and is in the process of switching to locally produced lotions.
“We work with Valley High’s ‘School to Work’ program, and some of the Valley High spa assistants come back after graduation to work for us again. We do it because they are next door, part of the community,” Breitbard says. “Locally owned businesses have to be concerned with environment and community to survive. A chain can just close down in a community that’s dying.” She’s also keenly aware that local nonprofits are dependent on the generosity of local businesses. Big chains often advertise how many millions they “give back” to the community, but the bottom line is that it amounts to far less than 1 percent of their corporate profits. The contribution in money, time, support and stability from local businesses amounts to far more.
“We all need to put effort into nurturing and sustaining what we love and treasure,” Breitbard says, “and it will sustain us in turn.”
‘Through the roof!’
None of the business owners involved in the growing “buy local” movement see it as an either/or situation. Rather it is a matter of percentages — of not only knowing the impact of your locally spent dollar, but making a conscious effort to increase, if even by a little, the percentage of what you spend locally versus at the chains. They all agree that sometimes what you need is at Wal–Mart, and that there’s nothing wrong with walking into Walgreens to buy your shampoo. “None of us expect our customers to only shop locally,” Breitbard says, “but 10 percent [of their expenditures] can make a huge difference.”
It’s clear to these owners that if we as consumers just make a small conscious effort to increase the percentage we spend locally, it can have a huge return. If we had lunch at McDonald’s yesterday, maybe we should try Blake’s tomorrow. If we bought our Tylenol at Walgreens last month, maybe we should buy the next bottle from Duran or Model pharmacies.
In Paternoster’s words, “If we can get just 1 percent of the people in Albuquerque to say to themselves, ‘You know, there’s farmers’ markets here that are kick–ass,’ that’s 7,500 people spending some of their grocery money locally. That’s a lot of money. Our economy would go through the roof!”
In an effort to spread awareness of how changing your spending percentage can make a difference, the Albuquerque Independent Business Alliance (AIBA) has created “Independence Week Challenge.” They’re challenging all of Albuquerque ’s city councilors to spend more locally during the week around Independence Day, July 1 through 7. The winner will be the councilor who spends the greatest percentage at locally owned businesses. As this paper was going to press, Councilors Tina Cummins, Miguel Gómez, Martin Heinrich, Sally Mayer and Debbie O’Malley had all accepted the challenge.
Born in New Mexico
One of the most innovative approaches to the “buy local” issue comes from, of all places, a giant national corporation. Sysco Food Service, a national distributor with assets topping $30 billion annually, has been called “the nation’s two–ton gorilla of food service.” Sysco doesn’t need to care about local buying, but unlike most corporate giants, it understands how important its impact can be. Sysco has partnered with the New Mexico Department of Agriculture and the School of Agriculture at NMSU in Las Cruces to come up with the “Born in New Mexico ” program. New Mexico farmers contract with Sysco to deliver their produce to local restaurants and other customers.
“The biggest problem small farmers face is distribution,” says Maurice Zeck, who is heading up the Born in New Mexico program. “How do they get their product to the consumer without accepting the lowest price? With this program, our trucks will make their deliveries, then on the return trip will stop at local farms and pick up their products, with no broker, no middleman. We pay the farmers more, and the restaurants pay us more. The restaurants get New Mexico products for their dollar, and they know that they and their customers are helping to sustain the small New Mexico farmer.” The program has already branched out from just produce, and is now working with small New Mexico livestock producers as well.
So far, Born in New Mexico contracts have ranged from small lots of jams and preserves made by the Taos Community Kitchens Project, to thousands of cases of potatoes grown on the Navajo Reservation. Zeck is projecting that the program will bring $2 million to New Mexico farmers this first year, $4 million next year and $6 million by 2007. Will a local McDonalds’ ever pay 20 percent more for a New Mexico– grown tomato than a California tomato? Probably not. But the locally owned restaurants of Albuquerque Originals will. In fact, many have already enthusiastically adopted the Born in New Mexico concept.
The paradigm of big–box stores destroying “buy local” sustainability has begun to shift, and consumers’ awareness about the impact of their spending is shifting as well. Programs like AIBA’s Independence Week Challenge, Albuquerque Originals’ cooperative advertising and produce buying, and even big corporate programs like Sysco’s Born in New Mexico, are each doing their part to help swing the momentum back towards sustainability and community prosperity. It’s up to us as consumers to help as well — 1 percent at a time. CW
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©Crosswinds Weekly 2005
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