by Nisa Sharma – Published in Parent:Wise Austin magazine – December 2004 – copyright

My personal epiphany happened before I had kids. I was living in Arkansas at the time, and was standing desperate in a national toy store chain looking for a puppet for my nephew. I’d already been to my only other choice, also a national chain store, and had struck out.

I scoured the entire store, and when I asked for help, the sales clerk laughed, saying that if it didn’t need a batter, they didn’t have it. I went straight home and wrote an impassioned letter to that chain store, threatening to never shop there again if they weren’t going to sell imaginative toys, and my response from them was my epiphany:  “Our customer base is quite broad, perhaps you should shop elsewhere.” (In my mind, I hear an evil laugh here).

That corporate arrogance made me a believer, and just like that, I became a local shopper.

While in Arkansas, when we got homesick for Austin, we’d spend the day at a used book shop. It was stacked so high and deep with musty old books that we wouldn’t even notice the hours passing by. It was weird in an Austin sort of way, and that is part of buying local as well. In Austin, buying local ensures our weird foundation stays weird. It defines the city.

Shannon Hornsby, former membership and program director for the Austin Independent Business Alliance (AIBA) agrees. “Austin wants its charm, uniqueness and flare, which they find in local businesses,” Hornsby says. “Just ask any Austinite his or her favorite place to eat and four out of five will tell you a local place.”

“Chain stores are consistent and predictable,” says Romalda Allsup, owner of Terra Toys. “I want to be surprised and find fun and interesting things when I shop. I buy things for my store based on my vision, if it’s not classic, fun or beautiful, it’s not here… You won’t find this stuff at Toys R Us.”

“Buying local is so important because the people who own these businesses are your neighbors… it keeps the money here where it pays local employees, who pay local rent,”says Steve Simmons, Director of Business Development at Amy’s Ice Creams and co-founder of Chose Austin First, an organization for Austin-area businesses. “When you shop at an unnamed chain ice cream shop, your money goes off to a multinational products company from Europe. How are they contributing to the community?”

Steve Bercu, CEO of Book People and Board President of AIBA, says money spent at local businesses actually has a huge effect on the city. “Dollars spent at locally owned businesses have 3.5 times the local economic impact as do dollars spent at the chains,” he says, “It is in our self interest to shop locally.”

And he has the numbers to back it up: Civic Economics, an economic analysis and strategic planning consultancy, did an impact analysis for Liveable City and AIBA in 2002. It concluded that spending $100 at a national retail chain would return only $13 to the local economy, while spending the same $100 at a local retail store would return $45 to the local economy.

In fact, the study goes on to say that “if every household in Travis County redirected just $100 in holiday spending, the local economic impact of that simple act would reach approximately $10 million.”

Liveable City also points to a report by the Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce of the US House of Representatives from February 2004, which estimates that on 200-person Wal-Mart store may result in a cost to federal taxpayers of $420,750 per year in health care, child care, housing and food subsidies for low paid, uninsured workers, as well as the expense for traffic congestion, infrastructure improvements, and increased public safety.

Allsup takes this kind of research to heart – shopping local not just for herself, but also for her store, Terra Toys. “I support local merchants,” she says. “If they are brave enough to come in and have a fun, creative product, I’ll sell it.”

Indeed, Allsup’s own store began when she was making and selling her own line of toys. This year, Terra Toys moved from South Congress to a large space on Anderson Lane. The move has been difficult, but Allsup is upbeat. “My landlords here at this shopping center seem to be focused on making this a ‘locally owned’ center,” she says. “It’s nice to see that support.”

Simmons points out that flexibility about what makes Austin weird is also key. “What works on Sixth Street will not work in Westlake,” he says. “Dallas may never get it. Houston is trying.”

But some in Dallas do get it: one of them is Marzi Pecen. “I come to Book People every time I’m in town, about once a month,” Pecen says. “It’s a great independent bookstore with a great selection, which I haven’t found at home.”

Given the importance of buying local, should national chains be banned? No, of course not – but Bercu and Allsup both feel that, in a perfect world, 95% of businesses would be locally owned. Since that’s not the case, consumers have to vote with their wallets to “keep Austin weird” when it comes to local merchants.

“The most powerful statement a community can make is to let their dollars do the talking,” Sommons says. “Brinker Restaurants, a very successful chain that owns Chili’s… failed in the Arboretum with ‘On the Border’ because local people would rather spend their money at Chuy’s and El Mercado. Now THAT is a powerful statement!”

Absolutely, agrees Mike Young, a founding partner of Comida Deluxe, which owns and operates Chuy’s among other restaurants. “I believe that Austin is as ‘weird’ as ever.”

Nisa Sharma, secretly delighted that the”evil” toy store chain has gone bankrupt, still tries her best to buy local. She lives in Cedar Park with her husband, two kids, and two cats.