 "Photo: James Choca / Tufts Daily")
Many students gravitate toward Starbucks to satisfy their coffee cravings, but a recently formed alliance of local businesses, including Dave’s Fresh Pasta and Redbones BBQ, urges members of the Somerville community to head to local cafés and businesses instead of national chains. The alliance is Somerville Local First, an organization that aims to keep consumer dollars in the community.
Somerville Local First was founded in March 2008 and began with only around 11 board members, according to Amy Thiebault, Somerville Local First Membership Committee Chair and owner of True Grounds, a coffee shop in Ball Square. Somerville Local First’s membership now includes more than 100 local businesses.
Jon O’Toole, Somerville Local First’s Board President, admitted the concept behind the organization is nothing new, saying that there are “hundreds” of similar local business alliances across the United States.
“We took a tried and true organizational theory and implemented it in Somerville,” O’Toole said. Aside from heading Local First’s Board, O’Toole is also the owner of Grand, “a contemporary home furnishings, apparel, gifts, and … vintage retail store in Somerville and Union Square,” he said.
Thiebault said that because Somerville Local First is a relatively new organization, it is still seeking out new members and working to retain current ones. The membership committee has four open houses each year, which allow members to meet and network.
“Somerville has a lot of local independent businesses, and we just want to sustain and … support [them],” Thiebault said.
The organization promotes local businesses by holding events. O’Toole cited a recent festival, Harvest Fest 2009, held at the Armory building on Highland Ave, as one example. The event had about 1,000 attendees, according to O’Toole, and featured local businesses, including microbreweries and restaurants. Additionally, Thiebault said that Founding Executive Director Joe Grafton “has huge connections with media outlets, so they’re always plugging stuff for us in whatever publication they may have … He’s just an unbelievable resource. It’s kind of crazy how many people he knows.”
Thiebault and O’Toole said that they have nothing against retail and restaurant chains, but they would prefer to keep consumers’ money within the neighborhood.
“We’re not by any means an anti-franchise kind of thing. We’re just basically wanting to keep the dollars [in] the community and support those local business because they’re such a great benefit to the community,” Thiebault said.
“One of the great things about Somerville is since we’re such a family oriented community, a lot of people … want to support local, independent businesses versus going to big box retailers. Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with big box retailers, but when you spend money within a local independent business, it’s more likely to reciprocate and [be spent] in another local independent business,” O’Toole said.
He added that the city itself is home to many conscious consumers.
“I think Somerville is an interesting place to own a business because … there are some really smart and empowered consumers in Somerville, and they definitely know that when they go into a local business and spend money within that local business, it is a positive thing not just [for] them but for the city in general,” O’Toole said. “We have a really great citizenry in Somerville that gets what we’re trying to do and is really supporting small independent businesses.”
With the holiday shopping season coming up, Somerville Local First is working to steer consumers towards local businesses to purchase gifts.
“A large national chain has the ability to use the large marketing budgets … to advertise those holiday specials,” O’Toole said. To counteract this, Somerville Local First helped create a campaign called “Shift Your Shopping” that will encourage consumers to shop locally during the holiday season. One method through which they hope to accomplish this goal is a Web site devoted to helping buyers find great holiday gifts in neighborhood shops.
As to what the future holds for the organization, O’Toole said, “The first year was a year of growth; it was trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. And the second year is one where we now look to doing some of those beneficial programs, like the local independent ‘Shift Your Shopping’ program … that can really benefit our member community. I think that’s essentially what we want to continue to do in the coming years.”
While Somerville Local First has a dedicated staff, it welcomes help from students. Grafton said in an e-mail that one way students can support the organization while watching their wallets is by shifting 10 percent of their spending from large chains to local independent businesses. Grafton also noted that many local options are less expensive than national chains, examples being the Somerville Theatre, Maria’s Cold Cuts and independent gas stations.
Sophomore Lauren Weiner is one student that prefers shopping at local businesses, largely because of the more personal service they offer customers.
“I like going to places that are locally owned because I feel like they are really paying attention to my needs. And they’re serving their specific population, so I feel really included. Sometimes you get to know the owners or even just the workers and they might even ask you if you like this particular item more than this particular item: ‘What do you wish we had in stock?,’” Weiner said.
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This article was edited on 11/20/09 from its original print version for purposes of clarity.
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