By Donna Wright
Whitewater DOTR Rocky Reporter

How does this sound?  A newspaper with a thicker job opportunities section than a real estate for sale section.  Neighbors who are doing well in their homes and businesses.  A downtown with no empty storefronts.

It’s rare to find a single issue that no matter what someone’s political alignments, income, family size, or any other demographic, everyone agrees on.  But this is one of them—nobody wants to see their town struggling.

But the truth is, ours is.

“This economy has been really hard on local businesses,” said Ron Binning, of Binning & Dickens Insurance Services, at a recent meeting to organize a Buy Local Saves Green project.

Binning, John Padinger, of Home Lumber Co., John Laundrie, of Culvers, Kim Scharine, of GMA Printing and several other community members aren’t willing to sit back and watch as Whitewater follows the fate of so many small towns across the country—the slow but sure emptying of our local businesses.

They’ve been working together for several months to launch the Buy Local Save Green project in Whitewater.  Their goal is to get the message out to citizens of why it is so important to support locally owned, independent businesses in Whitewater, Wisconsin.

Why is it important?
It seems obvious why buying local is important to local business owners, they need us to buy their good or services to stay in businesses.  But the benefits for everyone in a community go much deeper than one business’ bottom line.

According to the Small Business Administration, for every $100 spent in a local business, $60 is circulated back into the community.  That $60 supports local fire, police, libraries, streets, schools, parks and other businesses.  The fewer businesses there are to spend this money the more we spend it in the form of taxes, fees and other essentials.  And spending on the Internet gives $0 to the community.

Local businesses also hire local employees, promote local development, influence local government and offer goods and services from the desires of those who live here, not a decision made in a faraway corporate boardroom.

But, it costs more . . .
Knowing storeowners by name, shopping with people whose kids go to school with your kids and people you even went to school with sounds all nice and Norman Rockwellesque, but is it realistic?

I know that when I go to Woodman’s or Super Wal-Mart, I will come home with more bags of groceries than if I go to Sentry. If I can get it for less money, I’m saving money.  And I need to save money.

It seems like such a no-brainer. 

But if you look deeper into it, as studies recently have, those savings aren’t as much as they seem and sometimes don’t exist at all.  When you also consider travel expenses and the real costs of spending your money in another city, much more of the apparent savings vanish.

Wal-Mart funded a study through Global Insight to show how much they save their average shoppers.  They concluded that Wal-Mart saved about $2,300 per household per year.

But that number is extremely misleading, says Michael Shuman, author of “The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition,” and others who have looked closer at the study.

It used households classified as “average,” or those whose annual incomes are more than $45,000, according to the U.S. Census.  But about half of American households—the majority of Wal-Mart’s consumers—area actually classified as “median,” or earning less than $45,000.

Actual savings per median household is just under $630, or less than $300 using the formula that includes all of the variables.  Add to that the cost of driving to and from Janesville, Delavan and Madison’s big box stores, and many times savings go right out the window. 

So much for my armchair mathematics.  But who would have thought that my personal decision to drive to another town to save $20 on a pair of shoes or new bathroom vanity would mean so much?

No need to be a fanatic Now that I’m feeling really bad about trying to save a little money, Buy Local supporters are the first to say there’s no need to be a fanatic about it.  Nobody is suggesting that anyone spends money that they can’t afford just to buy it locally or goes without something because it can’t be found locally.  That’s ridiculous.

They say it’s not about buying locally exclusively, but rather buying locally first. 

The point is to take a little time to compare what’s in your own city or nearby cities vs. price, quality and travel before making your purchase.  And if you’re hungry, choose a locally owned restaurant.  If you need fresh produce, check out the farmers’ market.  If you need your car repaired, hire a local mechanic. And remember that buying local is more than things you can pack into your car, it’s services too, like banking, insurance, contractors, travel, attorneys, entertainment, accounting, etc.  There is a lot of power in seemingly small choices.
For more information on Whitewater’s Buy Local Saves Green project, email Binnings at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Click Here to view & print Buy Local Flier

WI  www.shopwhitewaterfirst.com