Independent retailers understand the buy-local movement because they fight for it every day. But they may not understand how much support they have or how important their efforts really are. Our cities and towns are inevitably weakened by a variety of problems, such as natural disasters, national economic crises and government gridlock at all levels. Small businesses have proven to be the key to making those communities strong again. Small businesses return more than three times as much money to their communities per dollar of sales than national chains do, according to a 2013 study by Civic Economics, a group of economic analysts, and the American Booksellers Association.
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