Building A Strong Local Economy

When asked to name our favorite restaurant, café, shop, or even grocery store, we will almost always cite a unique local business. We embrace the idea of distinctive businesses with local character, but often forget their survival depends on our patronage.

It is easy for us to get so consumed by efficiency that we forget that much of our lives we spend eating out, shopping and doing other business. We owe it to ourselves to consider the quality of our experience, and ask if we win when we choose a community-based / locally owned business. Local owners with much of their life savings invested in their businesses have natural interest in the long-term health of the community. Community based businesses are essential to charitable endeavors, frequently serving on local boards, and supporting a variety of causes. Yes, there are some corporate chains that give back to towns in which they do business, but anyone who raises funds for local non-profits will tell you that independents are their base of support. Not that all local businesses are models to follow, and corporate chains are not inherently bad, but the overall impacts are clear: local businesses play a vital role in our community that corporate chains rarely do.
Harter House Supermarkets are proud Charter Members of Springfield's Best Locally Owned Companies
Founded in 1994, for over 17 years, this not-for-profit organization has been educating the public about the importance of buying from locally owned business, keeping our dollars in our own community, and buying from reputable, honest and ethical businesses.

Springfield’s Best - Building A Strong Local Economy
Springfield's Best is a business alliance taking a cooperative approach and working together for the benefit of everyone, members and community. Collectively our actions are significant in this community, by encouraging each other and supporting each other’s choices.
· Citizens are under-informed about the many important values independent businesses provide us individually and as a community. We do business where we perceive we receive the best for our time and money. Perceptions however are not always accurate when we are lacking some of the essential information for fully informed decisions.
· There is strength in numbers and if locally owned businesses join together we will be able to affect the scales in our favor and see success for local business.
Why Buy Locally Owned?
We realize it is not always possible to buy what you need locally and so merely ask you to Think Local FIRST!
Top Ten reasons to Think Local - Buy Local - Be Local

1. Buy Local -- Support yourself: Several studies have shown that when you buy from an independent, locally owned business, rather than a nationally owned businesses, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms -- continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community


2. Support community groups: Non-profit organizations receive an average 250% more support from smaller business owners than they do from large businesses.


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.


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 as opposed to developing on the fringe. This generally means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution.


5. Create more good jobs: Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally and in our community, provide the most jobs to residents.


6. Get better service: Local businesses often hire people with a better understanding of the products they are selling and take more time to get to know customers.


7. 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.


8. Put your taxes to good use: Local businesses in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.


9. Buy what you want, not what someone wants you to buy: A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term. A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based not on a national sales plan but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.


10. Encourage local prosperity: A growing body of economic research shows that in an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.