Between January 5 and January 12, 2010, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance surveyed 1,810 independent businesses across the US and in some parts of Canada.  In Nova Scotia, 24 local independent businesses responded to the survey.  While the Nova Scotia survey was small, we think it’s important to highlight our local results.  They are as follows:

• While holiday sales for independent retailers were up an average of 2.2% in the US compared to the previous year, they remained about the same for Nova Scotia retailers.

• While 87% of Nova Scotia respondents indicated that there are active buy local campaigns in their area, about 40% of that group indicated that such campaigns are having a little impact on their business.  A little over a third of that group (33%) indicated that such campaigns are having no impact on their business while slightly under a third (27%) indicated that such campaigns are having a moderate or high positive impact on their business.

• Forty-five percent of respondents indicated that the fact that their business is locally owned and independent matters to some of their customers, while 25% indicated that it matters to most of their customers.  Approximately one-third of respondents indicated that it only matters to a few of their customers or none of their customers.

• Most respondents (67%) indicated that public awareness of the benefits of supporting locally owned businesses has increased in the last year, while 25% of respondents indicated that public awareness stayed the same.  About 4% of respondents thought that public awareness had actually decreased while another 4% were not sure.

• Most respondents (75%) did not make a major change in their business this year that would render comparisons to last year's sales irrelevant?  (For example, it is not a newly opened business or they did not undertake a major change of location or major reconfiguration of their product offerings?)

 

Respondent Profile:

Category which best defines their business:
Retail	16.70%
Restaurant or Café	0.00%
Construction	8.30%
Manufacturing	16.70%
Wholesale Trade	4.20%
Real Estate Sales and Management	0.00%
Professional Services	12.50%
Banking, Finance or Insurance	8.30%
Health Care	4.20%
Accommodation	4.20%
Transportation	0.00%
Other	25.00%

Discussion

  We at BALLE-NS are encouraged by the number of active buy local campaigns throughout Nova Scotia, but clearly work needs to be done to increase the efficacy of those campaigns to help ensure that they translate into improved operating results for local businesses.  BALLE-NS intends to undertake our first buy-local campaign for our business members in the Summer of 2010. 

  We at BALLE-NS are equally encouraged that 25% of survey respondents indicated that the fact their business is locally owned and independent matters to most of their customers.  We will use this as our benchmark as we roll-out a number of public awareness campaigns over the coming months.  Just think of the economic impact that could be achieved if we could double that number!  The 10% Shift challenge which encourages local citizens to shift just 10% of their pre-existing budgets to local independent businesses is a simple and effective way to achieve this goal.  Stay tuned for more information on this exciting campaign!

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