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Ray Stone: Buying local can strengthen economy
By Nathan Straus News Reporter

News Reporter

Dallas Cowboys radio show host Ray Stone ended his speaking tour in Chandler with a lesson on how buying locally can help small towns grow. His closing speech followed a breakfast get-together Friday, February 8 at 8 am.

"Nine out of 10 residents are not aware of the benefits of shopping at home," Stone said the morning after his presentation to the Chandler and Brownsboro Area Chamber of Commerce Banquet Thursday evening. "Think of the multiple effects of money."

He presented an example of the multiple effects of money, stating one might pay a dollar for a drink at a particular restaurant. That restaurant would use the dollar as part of an employee's paycheck, and the employee may use part of the paycheck to pay for a haircut. The barber would take the payment for the cut and use it to purchase gasoline at a local station. In this way money stays in the economy to be used by area citizens and businesses.

"Economic growth in a community leads to better schools, better real estate values and an improved quality of life," Stone said.

Stone also cited an example of a small town in Texas that conducted a "Shop locally" campaign. As a result, Stone said, the town's economy drastically increased in size, and so did its population.

The town, Allen, had only to educate its community on the benefits of shopping locally, Stone commented.

Ray Stone outlined several tips for businesses in reaching the goal of getting residents to buy locally.

"Businesses need to have a clean and safe facility, and they need to have an adequate inventory," Stone said. "People like it when businesses `under-promise', then `over-deliver', and following up with customers is always good."

Employees must also provide exceptional service, Stone added, and there must be an effective complaint management. Businesses must also tailor service to their customers, and never take them for granted.

Finally, businesses must compete effectively in quality and service.

Jeff Smiley, outgoing Chandler and Brownsboro Area Chamber of Commerce Chairman and 2008 advisor to the board, said the meeting contained good information that sparked conversation on how to keep more money in the area.

"We want to make people aware of the benefit of keeping dollars local," Smiley said.

Stone pointed out new and failed businesses have massive positive and negative impacts on the community, respectively. A successful new business can put nearly $1 million into the local economy during the first year, whereas a failed business can remove almost $1 million from it. The numbers take into consideration issues like employment, new jobs, sales, taxes and real estate value.

The meeting closed with Stone's suggestions on ways to immediately push "shopping at home".

"There are four projects to help familiarize residents with the benefits of buying locally," Stone said. "You can place a sign on a busy street, place a local ad in the paper or hold a town hall meeting that includes business owners and residents."

The best way to promote shopping at home, Stone said, has proven to be an organization of 100 or so citizens, with no business owners among them, who split into around 50 teams of two and visit homes to explain the benefits of commerce within the community. The example stone provided was for a town with 5,000 people.

"The problem is we've got about 35 percent of the income going to other places. We can't get half of that back due to services not being available in the area, but we can get the other half back," Stone said.

Smiley said the main thing for the chamber of commerce to do with this information is to communicate to the public what area businesses can accomplish.

"Many people don't know we've got full hardware stores in both Chandler and Brownsboro," Smiley said.