Look Local First – Support Orange City
Our community continues to grow. We need you to do your part to help us continue to thrive. Orange City is filled with local small businesses that are run by our neighbors and friends. Our local entrepreneurs are following their passion, enriching your community, and are the lifeblood of a sustainable local economy. When you support their businesses, you enjoy the benefits of a local face, a personal experience and friendly smile.
looking local first has many benefits:
KEEPING DOLLARS IN THE LOCAL ECONOMY – locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local economy, enriching the whole community.
COMMUNITY WELL-BEING – locally owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a web of economic and social relationships, and contributing to local causes.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP – Entrepreneurship fuels America’s economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.
PRODUCT DIVERSITY – A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based, not on a national sales plan, but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.
We have an opportunity to support these business owners that we continuously ask for donations to support our children’s causes, church group trips, and general fundraising campaigns. We must be even more aware and diligent to support those closest to us in any way we can. These small business owners need us now more than ever! If we do not support them, we will lose them.
The Orange City Chamber is encouraging a mindset of thinking locally first. We challenge you to look locally first for your next purchase, any purchase, and if you don’t see it offered somewhere, ask a local small business owner if they can get the item you are looking for……chances are they can and would be happy to help you!
The Chamber is actively supporting our members through these opportunities and will continue to offer opportunities for all us to support an important part of our community.
WHY LOOK LOCAL FIRST?
Local independent businesses are the backbone of our economy. They are better positioned to respond to the needs of our community and are inherently tied to the future of our community. Local businesses also make daily decisions that address issues of economic, environmental, racial, and social equity.
1. Local Character and Prosperity
In an increasingly homogenized world, communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character have an economic advantage.
2. Community Well-Being
Locally owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a web of economic and social relationships, and contributing to local causes.
3. Local Decision-Making
Local ownership ensures that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions.
4. Keeping Dollars in the Local Economy
Compared to chain stores, locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local economy, enriching the whole community.
5. Job and Wages
Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in some sectors, provide better wages and benefits than chains do.
Hometown Advantage Bulleting Sign-Up
6. Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship fuels America’s economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.
7. Public Benefits and Costs
Local stores in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls.
8. Environmental Sustainability
Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers-which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.
9. Competition
A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.
10. Product Diversity
A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based, not on a national sales plan, but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.
