Last week saw Local First Milwaukee having their annual meeting hosted by the fine folks at Sprecher Brewery. It was a good night with food donated by: Beans & Barley, Bolzano Meats, Martha’s Pimento Cheese, Hansen’s Desserts, and Sprecher; connecting with other member businesses, and action reports from the various committees!
While listening to Pam Mehnert’s report, I learned a couple impressive things about the economic power of locally-owned businesses. For instance, when you spend money at a national chain retailer, about 13% of the money stays circulating in that community. With a locally-owned business, 44% recirculates! Even more incredible is that if Milwaukee consumers shifted just 10% of their spending from national chains to independent, locally-owned businesses, that would create an additional $300,000,000.00 in the Milwaukee-region. Pretty amazing what happens when you think local, and buy local!
I got to chat with people representing the following great Milwaukee businesses…John Bleidorn, CPA, Glorioso’s, Rethinking Schools, Stef Bartz Photography, Charles Allis Museum, Fair Trade For All, Laacke and Joys, ECE Candles, Wellspring Farm, Edible MKE, Anodyne Coffee, Riverside Theatre, RocketBaby Bakery, Revolutions Natural Running, Faye’s, and Orphonic Multimedia. To learn about the many other 200+ LFM members, check our directory!
