Shopping local as a partnership

Lois Loucks, Director of the Tri-Cities Economic Development (Wheaton-Onaga-Havensville, KS), shared some of her innovative thoughts with me in an email about shopping local.

"Shopping Local" as a two way street, with responsibility placed on the business owners to earn "their share of business". Just because someone decides to be in business, does not automatically mean they deserve "their share" of customers. The business owner/manager/employees must earn "their customers". From my experiences, I believe, especially in the present economy, a "Shop Local Campaign" must not only be directed at the citizens, but formulated as to form a partnership, so to speak, between the businesses and the citizens.

Loucks listed some of the key items that business should focus on to earn their share of business:

• Convenience (Shopping hours)
• Service (not only personal, kind, friendly, but Store layout, Cleanliness, Good Signage, Lighting, Parking, etc.) 
• Price for Perceived Value (Obvious reasons to offset higher price) 
• Making Shopping a Pleasant Experience (yes, Enjoyable Experience)

I'm a huge proponent of building your basics first, and building experiences with customers, so we agree on much of this.

What do you think? How do you see small businesses working in partnership to promote the whole community?

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