Buffalo First Encourages Area Businesses to Buy Locally

August 06, 2006
Michelle Kearns
The Buffalo News

Mack Luchey hesitated when the 30-year-old PhD student came to his East Side record shop to persuade him to join a new "Buffalo First" business coalition, part of a new and growing national effort to convince people to buy from locally-owned businesses.

Amy Kedron, who intends to write a dissertation about the project she has modeled on those in other cities, called Luchey a few times. Then she went to see him at 286 East Ferry St., where Luchey's late ex-wife founded Doris Records in 1962.

Luchey said he could use more customers for the jazz, blues, gospel and hip-hop he sells. The streets around his shop are now as empty during the week as they once were on Sundays. Kedron persuaded him, and he is now one of the 33 local businesses that have paid $50 to be a member of the new regional organization.

"Before you didn't mind people going to the suburbs because there was enough in the city," said Luchey, who keeps a Bible on his desk among the piles of paper and financial statements. "We have to support each other."

Kedron, who has studied economic theory as part of her social science and law focus, has researched the "buy local" advocacy movements. For the last month, she and her co-founding partner have met with eight businesses a week and, with one exception, every one signed up.

Two national alliances, each about 5 years old, now have about 60 groups in other cities - from Bellingham, Wash., to Philadelphia. "We genuinely are seeing the beginnings of a national movement," said Jeff Milchen, co-founder of American Independent Business Alliance (AIBA), a Montana-based group.

Buffalo First will join another group, which it liked for its political neutrality and buy-local campaign materials: The California-based Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) has 34 member organizations in other cities and a broader economic development focus.

"There's been an explosive amount of interest in the work that we're doing," said Ann Bartz, BALLE's program manager. "We've grown by a third in the last six months."

The buy-local efforts try to convince people to alter spending habits and choose locally-owned companies with marketing, posters, coupon books and economic logic: A higher percentage of the dollars spent on local businesses filter back into to the local economy, they say.

Local businesses turn more readily to local suppliers, said Milchen: A locally-owned restaurant may help local businesses stay in business by buying locally-grown food and employing local accountants and ad designers.

"When you loose your unique independent owned businesses, that really undermines the quality of life," said Milchen, explaining that AIBA has lobbied against Wal-Mart's pending proposal to get into the banking business.

To combat the powerful economic influence of corporate chains, he said local alliances pool marketing resources and create a brand image with window-decal logos.

The "Buy Local Philly" campaign has the slogan "My city is my business" and a Web site with large black and white photos of local business owners.

Bellingham's $10 "Where Locals Go!" coupon book has a colorful retro look and 200 business listings. That city's "Sustainable Connections" group, includes a county region of 200,000, and a local business network of 500 dues-paying members. It coordinates a mentoring program, business conferences, hosts monthly workshops on how businesses can use alternate "green" building materials, sponsors an "Eat Local Week," and arranges chef visits to local farms.

"It's looking at the economy for the 25th century. Maybe business groups are going to have to reinvent themselves," said Michelle Long, executive director of the Sustainable Connections local business network in Bellingham.

Kedron and her co-founding partner Brendan Biddlecom have developed their own list of business benefits and a plan to sign up 100 before beginning services in November: Posters and a business directory with a Buffalo nickel brand logo; A city-wide "buy local" day being coordinated with the Forever Elmwood neighborhood group; coupons; and networking events so that businesses can learn about each other.

"We're trying to keep the wealth that's generated here from leaking out," said Biddlecom, 26, a Clarence native studying for a master's degree at York University in Toronto.

Kedron, who spent part of her childhood in the Black Rock district now abandoned by many old-time small businesses, hopes Buffalo First will help business thrive in ailing neighborhoods. Already she's gathered so many referrals that she had to abandon the Excel file list she started. "I just stopped because it was too much," she said.

Janet Ostrow, owner of Premier Gourmet foods on Delaware Avenue in Kenmore, said she gave Kedron and Biddlecom a list of business colleagues and $50 because she liked their approach. She has long featured and sold locally-made Watson's chocolates, DiCamillo cookies and Flying Bison beer, among others.

"They were darling," she said of Kedron and Biddlecom. "I think they have potential to really make a difference in this community."