Did you know that spending $1 in a local business keeps .42 cents in the community compared to just .11 cents for the same dollar spent in a national chain?

A little history; Tucson First was an idea adopted by Mayor and Council in 1990′s. The idea to support local businesses was started by a few in the business community and was funded by the City of Tucson. The problem was that due to City procurement procedures regarding low bidders the printing for the Tucson First program was actually done by an out of state company. The media got a hold of the story and the programs funding went away.

I was involved in another program started in the mid 2000′s called Returning Business To Tucson. Charlie Odowd (now director of Southern Arizona for ASBA) and I were the co-chairs. The momentum started but we didn’t have the dedicated personel or the budget to keep the project going.

Now another group out of Phoenix is looking to start up a chapter here in Tucson. Local First Arizona is a well organized and funded grass roots effort started and championed by Kimber Lanning. Kimber was the owner of a local record store in Phoenix called Stink Weeds.  She watch how hard it was for other local businesses to grow and thrive and decided to do something about it.

In Phoenix Local First Arizona (LFA) is up to 1800 members and growing. Each month 30-40 locally owned businesses are signing.  Some of the things LFA is doing in the Phoenix market include, buy local maps for restaurants and retail locations, numerous events to draw attention to local shop keepers including farmers markets, fall festivals, meet and greet events to name a few.  Kimber has expanded the efforts to look at zoning and building processes in Phoenixes older downtown area where a unique selection of local businesses are actually a huge selling point for consumers. Kimber is also moving LFA into the procurement arena to push for preferential treatment for local businesses in the lucrative government contracting areas. She is working with Wisk Office Products to change State of Arizona procurement rules. I have hear that the City of Phoenix has already implemented a procurement process using small businesses modeled after the Minority and Women Business program already in place.

I’ve jumped on with LFA’s efforts to start a similar program here in Tucson/Pima County.  Currently we have just shy of 100 business registered – HERE is the Tucson listings. Once our membership hits 150 here in Tucson additional marketing and support will be coming our way.  The public relations efforts have been amazing. Lisette DeMarsfrom Mrs. Tiggy Winks Toys is the Tucson point of contact and tireless champion trying to get us going here in Tucson.

 The Mayor and Council proclaimed Black Thursday, the traditionally biggest shopping day of the year as Buy Local Day.  Click HERE for the story.

I encourage all of you to check out Local First Arizona. Join the organization and help us make it a success.

From the Tucson Citizen about Local First Arizona – HERE.

From Business Pundit.com – Buy Local! – HERE

Local flavor