San Mateo County harbors many great independent and locally owned businesses, Redwood Massage & Sauna being one of them. Businesses that showcase our community’s personality lets visitors know why our community is such a nice place to live in. When you have out of town guests, think of the places where you might take them. More than likely, you’ll try to avoid the normal, everyday companies that are known nationwide, such as Starbucks, Burger King and Supercuts. You’ll want to take them to one of the many locally owned businesses that provide that wonderful, one of a kind character to our community.
Choosing to shop locally will not only meet your needs but it also supports our community in more ways than one. Unlike chain corporations, who focus a great deal on advertising to get your business, locally owned businesses generally contribute to local non-profit organizations, provide more jobs and support economic sustainability.
National franchises claim to be low price but have you actually compared? Quite often the neighborhood store costs less for better service.
Doing business with local businesses pays off economically. It’s simple. Detailed professional economic analyses* establish repeatedly that spending with locally owned independent businesses generates substantially greater economic impact than chain retailers, and there have been no studies or arguments disputing these findings.
Three times as much money stays in the local economy when spent with locally owned independents rather than national chains or franchises. Specifically, for every dollar spent locally, about 45 cents stays in the local economy, while the same dollar spent in a national chain only leaves 13-15 cents in the local economy. Up to 80% of money spent in national chains literally leaves town in the night deposit.
(Local Merchants vs. Chain Retailers, Austin, 2002, http://www.liveablecity.org/lcfullreport.pdf Economic Impact of Locally Owned Businesses vs. Chains, Maine, 2003, http://www.newrules.org/retail/midcoaststudy.pdf
Andersonville Study of Retail Economics, Chicago, 2004 & 2005, http://www.civiceconomics.com/Andersonville
Even moderate increases in market share generate dramatic local economic impact. (San Francisco Retail Diversity Study, San Francisco, 2007, http://www.civiceconomics.com/SF/. For example, with a population of 600,000, a 10% shift of spending from chains to locally owned independents could create $140 million of new local economic activity, enough for 1600 jobs with a $53 million payroll.
(Examining the Impact of Local Business on the West Michigan Economy, Grand Rapids, 2008, http://www.civiceconomics.com/localworks/
A few of the community organizations we support:
- Police Activities League (PAL)
- Veterans Hospital
- Women in County Government
- Redwood City Downtown Business Group
- Local Schools
- Rotary International
- Heartmath Institute
- Institute of Noetic Sciences