Shop in St. Johns this Friday
The Saturday after Thanksgiving marks the second anniversary of “Small Business Saturday” an event encouraging people pledge to “shop small” by purchasing their Christmas gifts from local independently owned stores and businesses within their own community. Did you know that Independent local merchants return 68% of their revenue to the community? Big boxes and national chains only return 13%-43%, and out-of-town websites return Zero.
We wish to encourage all St. Johns shoppers to “Keep the Cheer Here” by shopping local for the Holidays in historic Downtown St. Johns. To view a listing of all our local places to shop in the Central Business District, visit our website www.DowntownStJohns.org and reacquaint yourself with the 125 business in our Downtown District.
The Downtown St. Johns Principal Shopping District is a supporter of the 3/50 project.
What is the 3/50 project? It is an organization pursuant to saving the brick and mortar stores our national was built on. Why is it called the “3/50 project”? First, think of 3 independently owned businesses you would miss if they closed.
Next visit them and purchase something… your spending is what keeps those local small businesses operating. If 50% of the employed population spent $50 in locally owned independent businesses each month, it would generate 42.6 billion dollars in revenue (according to the U.S. Labor Department 2/6/09 report).
Just imagine what an impact you could have on the locally owned businesses here in Downtown St. Johns owned by your friends and neighbors! For every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community in the form of taxes, payroll and other expenditures. If you spend the same $100 in a big box store or other national chain, only $43 returns to the local economy (according to the Andersonville Study of Retail Economics by Civic Economics).
If you spend that on an out-of-town website, nothing returns home. It is clear that locally-owned businesses generate substantially more economic benefit to the local economy than national chains. In other words: Spend it here – Get more back.
