The Donnybrook Balingup Chamber strongly believes that ‘buying local’ is a fundamentally important part of creating strong economies and even stronger communities.

Several studies have shown that when you buy from an independent, locally owned business, rather than a nationally owned business, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms.

Every Dollar that leaves our Shire is largely lost to our community, whilst every dollar spent within our boundaries gets spent over and over again – in fact some research suggests that every single Dollar you spend within the Shire get recycled so well by local communities that it ends up being worth $3 to the wider community.

Here are five more great reasons why spending locally is so powerful:

1. Buy Local – Support yourself – where we shop, eat and have fun is all part of making our community ‘home’.
2.Create More Good Jobs – Small local businesses are the largest employers Nationally and are committed to keeping those jobs local rather than shipping them out to a ‘head office’.
3.Invest in Community – Local businesses are owned by people who live in this community, are less likely to leave when things get tough and have more invested in our community’s future.
4.Keep Our Community Unique – Locally owned businesses are part of the distinctive character of our towns. Not only is this great for us – but also to potential visitors and tourists. No one needs to travel to see a high street full of franchises.
5.Get Better Service – local businesses often hire people with better understanding of the produce they are selling

Our Shop Local Campaign

So, why run a ‘shop local’ campaign? Firstly because they Work! A recent study by the Institute For Local Self Reliance showed that towns with a shop local campaign=had almost three times the revenue growth of those that didn’t. On top of this, businesses got even more benefits from the campaigns than just revenue:

•42% said the campaign had improved the loyalty of their existing customers

•41% said the promotions brought new customers to their business

•62% reported the campaign increased local media coverage of independent businesses

•47% said the messaging made officials more aware and supportive of independent businesses

•42% said it had led to more collaboration, purchasing and mutual support among local businesses

If you want to find out more about how you can become involved in our campaign please contact us