How Your Dollars Make a Difference

With its unique collection of creative boutiques, vibrant casual fine-dining options, trendy galleries, and eclectic antique shops housed in bricks and mortar from a bygone era, historic downtown Roswell is as prosperous as it picturesque. A product of community pride and ingenuity which has survived despite adversity for nearly two centuries, Roswell stands as a model for struggling downtowns across the country. Many locales have become irrelevant to consumers looking for savings and convenience over substance and service, declined and are now in the process of revitalization.

Fortunately, Roswell’s leadership recognized early that the historic downtown is not only the heart of the community, but the heartbeat that drives much of the area’s economy. “Roswell’s businesses, our local shops, restaurants, and services, help pay our taxes, support our charities and civic organizations, and serve our families. They have earned our support. By finding the goods and services we consume and spending our money in Roswell, we help ourselves and our community”, Roswell’s three-time mayor, Jere Wood, confirms.

The Find it All in Roswell project (www.finditallroswell.com) promotes local businesses by offering consumers a free VIP card that entitles the cardholder to discounts on the goods and/or services of more than 120 participating local merchants. This project’s organizers contention is: “When small businesses thrive, we all prosper, from the wonderful character and ambiance they create in the community to the products and services from which we may select. Successful shops, galleries, restaurants and businesses attract more businesses to the area, resulting in products and services that benefit residents and attract visitors.”

Find it All in Roswell is a reflection of a growing national trend to support local businesses. The 3/50 Project is a grassroots movement which has been featured on numerous national news shows and in publications like The Wall Street Journal and Consumer Reports. Formally launched on March 30, 2009 as the result of a blog post written by founder Cindy Baxter, The 3/50 Project has exceeded even her expectations.“If someone had told me one sentence in a blog post could turn into a viral campaign, well…I probably would have planned a road map of some kind,” explains Baxter.

In that blog post, she challenged consumers to return to three locally-owned businesses they’d hate to see disappear, then actively commit to doing business with them on a regular basis. The second part of the challenge asked them to commit $50 of their monthly spending to locally-owned businesses. “If just half the employed U.S. population did that, it would generate more than $42.6 billion annually,” Baxter explains.

The most stunning element of The 3/50 Project message, however, comes in the form of a third number: 68. “That’s the percentage of money from each transaction that returns to the community’s economy when spent with locally-owned businesses. If the consumer spends that with a big box or chain, the number drops to 43 percent. If they spend it online, nothing comes home, Baxter says.

by Lorrie Bryan and Sally Johnson

For more information, visit www.finditallroswell.com and www.the350project.net.