FORT WAYNE – If a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker seem an unlikely trio, try a pet spa owner, a power equipment dealer and a coin shop proprietor.
The Pink Poodle Pet Spa, Mutton Power Equipment and Mr. Wimps Coins & Jewelry are among dozens of area businesses that have joined forces to encourage people to spend their money at locally owned stores and restaurants.
The roster includes about 170 companies as varied as used-car dealers, dry cleaners, restaurants, insurance agents, a children’s science museum and a miniature golf course. Include multiple locations and the number of participants exceeds 250.
The national movement, called The 3/50 Project, started with one Minnesota woman who couldn’t believe what she was hearing while watching TV last March. Oprah Winfrey and personal finance guru Suze Orman were urging viewers to ride out the recession by stopping all unnecessary spending.
"That’s the quickest way to bankrupt an entire nation’s economy," Cinda Baxter said recently, her voice still brimming with astonishment.
Instead of following their advice, Baxter, a retail consultant and speaker, blogged about an alternative. Her suggestion: Identify three local businesses you’d hate to see close. Spend $50 a month among the three. She christened the simple plan The 3/50 Project.
Fort Wayne Newspapers has organized a coalition of locally owned businesses, which is distributing frequent-shopper cards that allow program participants to enter drawings for cash prizes. Shop Local cards are available at each participating business. The deadline is April 23.
Fort Wayne Newspapers, the business agent for The Journal Gazette and The News-Sentinel, has also been running full-page advertisements to promote its Shop Local program.
Small-business owners nationwide have eagerly embraced the idea.
About 130 cities nationwide have formed local business alliances, a number that has tripled in the past three years, according to a recent count by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. A survey by the organization found independent businesses in cities with buy-local campaigns increased their holiday sales by an average of 2.2 percent, compared with a 0.3 percent overall retail decline in December.
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a Minneapolis-based non-profit research and education organization, compiled the list of cities based on membership rolls in two organizations: Business Alliance for Local Living Economies and American Independent Business Alliance. Their members urge consumers to support local businesses but don’t necessarily reward them for doing so.
Stacy Mitchell, spokeswoman for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, said those local alliances represent about 30,000 independent businesses. What’s more, she’s sure the count doesn’t include all the existing alliances that promote shopping in locally owned stores.
Among those who circulated The 3/50 Project idea in Fort Wayne was Sara Keltsch, who owns The Monogram Shoppe in Covington Plaza.
"It has caught on. People are thinking about it," she said, adding that consumers are making the mental connection between several recent restaurant closures and their own spending choices.
Susie Freeman, co-owner of Freeman Jewelers, agreed.
"It is just getting people to remember to go to the local places," she said.
But even Keltsch acknowledges that measuring the program’s success is all but impossible. The shop owner has tweaked her inventory, created alliances with others in the wedding industry and expanded her hours during the recession to attract more business. It’s difficult to separate the effects of her varied efforts to know which ones generated how many dollars.
Bill Christie, owner of Sunny Schick Camera Shop, said clerks in his downtown store mention the Shop Local program to customers and encourage them to participate.
"I think it’s a terrific idea," he said. "I believe that local residents should support local businesses."
But he doesn’t see any way to tally how much business the program might have brought his way. Few shoppers have been aware of the program before staff mentions it, Christie said.
Support for a local shopping movement predates Baxter’s brainstorm.
Freeman and Keltsch were among several business owners who participated in a November 2008 event to boost local spending. The Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce held a rally at Covington Plaza to encourage people to shop locally. That included chain retailers because they employ local people and pay local sales taxes.
"The sales tax is your key," Keltsch said. "Sales tax funds the roads. Sales tax funds the schools. Sales tax funds the mayor."
Online retailers don’t pay state sales tax. Asked whether she would want a hypothetical local online retailer to succeed, Keltsch said she would – as long as it paid sales tax.
Allen County’s sales tax receipts fell by almost 7 percent last year to almost $153 million from almost $164 million, according to the Indiana Department of Revenue. The state and local governments have been forced to look for places to cut their budgets. Area school districts are considering job cuts in response to funding shortfalls.
Mitchell, of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, calls such philosophy "faux local."
Fliers created by Baxter, who created The 3/50 Project, quote studies by Civic Economics, an economic analysis consulting firm that found that for every $100 spent in independently owned stores, $68 comes back to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures. National chains contribute about $43.
By Baxter’s calculations, if every working person in the United States spent $50 a month at independent shops, it would generate more than $42.6 billion in sales.
Encouraging consumers to buy more from area retailers is a cause that draws widespread support – even joining unlikely allies.
Some direct competitors are taking part in the area’s Shop Local program. But Keltsch doesn’t see a conflict between encouraging people to shop at both Belmont Beverage and Cap N’ Cork, for example.
"Some people are loyal to one. Some people are loyal to the other. And some people are loyal to both," she said.
The point is, Keltsch said, the ads remind people that both liquor stores – and numerous other businesses – are local.
Freeman agreed.
"I hope as much as anything that it’s paying off in awareness," she said. "I’ve had several" shoppers mention the program.
Barbara Johnson is an enthusiastic supporter of local businesses. She buys from them whenever she can for personal and professional needs.
The director of SheeKriStyle Academy of Dance Arts orders shirts and shoes for her students. Whenever she has a need, Johnson thinks of which local independent business can meet it, even if the price is a little higher than at a national chain retailer.
"I’m willing to pay a little more because we have to support each other," said Johnson, who is senior program manager for the Fort Wayne Women’s Bureau.
Keltsch hopes Johnson’s attitude will spread to others and continue long after the Great Recession is a faint memory.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune contributed to this story.
