2.07.2010

The 3/50 Project

Have you heard of it yet?

The 3/50 project is a group effort to support locally owned businesses.  Unlike many efforts to focus attention on the difficulties mom-and-pop businesses face in our current economy, the 3/50 Project doesn't point fingers or assign blame or insist that there is only one right way to support small businesses.  Here's what the 3/50 Projects asks you to do:

#1:  Stop and think of three locally owned businesses you'd hate to see disappear.  Maybe it's that coffee shop with the local artists' paintings on the wall.  Or maybe it's that bookstore you haven't been to in a while.  Or maybe it's the toy store with employees that always remember you.

#2:  At those three businesses, spend $50.00 a month.  That's $50 total.  $16.66 at each business.  And if you go in for the high-end coffee drinks, that can happen faster than you imagine! 

And that's it.  That's all you have to do.  It's that easy.
So what does your $50 a month at three local businesses actually do?  Well...  Here's a jaw-dropping statistic:  If half of all the employed adults in the US spent $50 a month in local businesses, there would be an additional $42.6 billion pouring into our local economies.  And it isn't just about an inflow of money to one business.  For every $100 spent at a local business, $68 of it *stays* in the local economy.  It stays in the form of wages, taxes, local charities supported, sports teams sponsored, and profits reinvested through purchases at other local businesses. 

That same $100 spent at a chain store only leaves $43 in the local economy.  And purchases made online?  That money goes *poof* and disappears to someone else's town.

Are we asking you to *stop* shopping at chain stores or making purchases online?  No.  There's no need to abandon the big box mega marts or those easy to use webstores.  Just choose a few things, a handful of items, that you'll buy at a store owned by the people down the block.  And stick to it. 

Pick 3.  Spend $50.  Save your town.
For more information or to get your own business involved, you can read all about it here:  http://www.the350project.net/home.html

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