News Article
Support the Community, Buy Local
Every dollar spent on local products generates four times that in economic activity
Steve MacNaull, The Okanagan Saturday
5 March 2011
A consortium of Okanagan businesses wants to get one simple message out: Buy local. “Buying local is good for the economy and the community,” said Wade McManus, a sales manager at Kelowna-based Tops Telecom and Imaging.
“Forty percent of employment in the Okanagan is with locally owned and operated businesses. And for every $1 spent locally it generates $4 more in economic activity. That doesn’t happen if you buy from an out-of-town company and your dollars flee the community.”
McManus is a representative from one of nine local companies that make up the Okanagan Strategic Business Partnership.
The nine companies put on a Products and Solutions show this week at the Holiday Inn Express in Kelowna and invited other local businesses to drop in and find out that they can buy everything they need locally to keep their business going.
While it was a business-to-business show, McManus said the concept of buy local also applies to regular consumers.
“Local companies also tend to be more innovative and cost effective because they are smaller, making decisions locally and are more flexible than big multi-nationals,” said McManus.
“Local companies also have less of an environmental footprint than multi-nationals. Just look at how much space a Home Depot needs compared to a Home Hardware.”
If businesses and consumers buy from a locally owned and operated store or business, the dollars stay in the community and help the economy and social fabric, said McManus.
The same can’t be said for purchase from international conglomerates or online.
McManus also said communities that have a strong buy local attitude fare better in economic down times because at least dollars spent are circulating in the community rather than going elsewhere.
While the Okanagan generally has a good buy local ethic, McManus said there’s always room for improvement, which is why the group is lobbying municipalities throughout the valley to adopt official buy local stances and promotions.
“What we’ve done here is kind of set up a one-stop for a new business or any business in the Okanagan,” said Richard Hyde of West Kelowna based Complete Mailing Solutions.
“The nine businesses in the Okanagan Strategic Business Partnership all sell products or solutions a business may be looking for. If a business makes contact with one of our members then that member can also refer others in the partnership.”
For instance, two of the members are Coldwell Banker commercial realtor Gary Bowker and Tops Telecom and Imaging.
Both are companies that a new business to the Okanagan may contact first as they look for office space or inquire about a phone system.
Bowker or Tops can help out the new business, but also refer others in the partnership as being local and providing goods and services they might need.
Other members of the partnership include Bolt Security Systems, Source Office Furnishings, VB Firm Management Solutions, Windward Software and the Commissionaires.
Bolt and the Commissionaires provide security services.
“American companies will come to the Okanagan a couple of times a year and sell cheap security systems that are monitored out of the U.S.,” said Hyde.
“Bolt and the Commissionaires provide local service and monitoring.”
Penticton-based Windward Software makes point-of-sale and inventory control software that’s built right into a company’s shipping or cash register systems.
VB Firm Management Solutions is a software package for law offices that can create, scan, send, save, file, fax, track and add signatures to documents, all electronically.
“This solution saves law offices time and money,” said VB president John Ryan.
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