Fostering Community Connection & Business Growth
Strengthening Our Community One Purchase at a Time
Join us at Keep-It-Local, a key feature of the Home and Health Shows by the Community Chamber of Commerce. Our mission is simple: inspire everyone to support local businesses and make a big impact on our neighborhoods.
Boost Your Local Economy
When you shop locally, you're boosting the local economy, creating jobs, and preserving the unique charm of our community. Keep-It-Local, with its neighborhood-based Home & Health Shows, offers valuable resources to support community initiatives and helps you discover amazing businesses.
Get Event Notifications & Win Door Prizes
Opt-in to Keep-It-Local to get updates on upcoming events and a chance to win exciting door prizes at our shows. Be part of the movement that keeps our community vibrant and thriving.
Sign up today to stay informed and celebrate local businesses with us. Together, we can make a lasting difference!
Fostering Community Connections & Business Growth
Here are the top reasons to shop locally:
1) Buy Local - Support yourself
Several studies have shown that when you shop locally, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers, and farms, which continues to strengthen the community's economic base.
2) Support Community Groups
On average, smaller business owners support nonprofit organizations 250 percent more than large businesses. You can help by supporting local clubs, charities, and chambers of commerce.
3) Keep our Community Unique
Where we shop, where we eat and have fun -- all of it makes our community home. Our one-of-a-kind businesses are an integral part of the distinctive character of this place. Our tourism businesses also benefit. “When people go on vacation, they generally seek destinations that offer them the sense of being someplace, not just anyplace.”
4) Reduce Environmental Impact
Locally owned businesses can make more local purchases, requiring less transportation, and generally set up shop in town or city centers instead of developing on the fringe. This typically means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss, and pollution.
5) Create More Good Jobs
Small local businesses are the largest employers nationally and provide the most jobs to residents in our community.
6) Nurture Future Leaders & A Skilled Workforce
Supporting our local universities and schools fosters a vibrant, educated community that directly contributes to our local economy. Let's make sure our dollars stay local and strengthen our schools and universities for tomorrow's workforce!
7) Get Better Service
Local businesses often hire people who have a better understanding of the products they sell and spend more time getting to know their customers.
8) Invest In Community
Local businesses are owned by people who live in this community, are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the community’s future.
9) Put Your Taxes To Good Use
Local businesses in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services. The taxes paid by local businesses help support the police, fire, and recreational services for the city you live in.
10) Buy What You Want, Not What Someone Wants You To Buy
A marketplace with many businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long term. Many companies, each selecting products based on local needs with a desire to serve local customers, guarantee a much broader range of product choices.
11) Encourage Local Prosperity
A growing body of economic research shows that entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character in an increasingly homogenized world.
