• Farmers Markets
• Used Books
• Used, Free, and Cheap

• Virginia Cooperative Extension: Go Local, Virginia: A Consumer ’s Guide to Buying Healthful, Locally Produced Foods in Virginia
• Style Weekly: Insider Trading, Buying local saves the world — and you may someday see that dollar bill again
• Recession is near shop local Rumors
•  Learning from Big Boxes E M Risse, Bacon's Rebellion 
• American Booksellers Association: The Shop Local Movement
• Andersonville Study of Retail Economics
• Civic Economics: San Francisco Retail Diversity Study
• The Economic Impact of Locally Owned Businesses vs. Chains: A Case Study in Midcoast Maine
• Institute for Local Self-Reliance: Big Box Economic Impact Studies
• Reclaim Democracy: The Benefits of Doing Business Locally
• Big Box Analyses
  • Big Box Toolkit
  • The Orton Family Foundation: Big Box Evaluator 

• Directory
  • Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (Start a Network)
  • New American Dream: Local Buying Guides 
• Best Practices
  • Austin Independent Business Alliance (Austin TX)
  • Boulder Independent Business Alliance (BIBA) (Boulder, CO)  
  • Shop Local (New Orleans, LA) 
• Nearby Organizations
  • Charlottesville, VA-Buy Fresh Buy Local
  • Washington, DC- Local First DC
     

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Richmond Good Life :: Shop Richmond First

Support Local Richmond Businesses First

• ShopRVA

• Boaz and Ruth (Highland Park) awesome mission

• Carytown Merchants Association

• Lakeside Business Association 

• Midlothian Corridor Business Association

• Richmond Downtown Neighborhood Association (DNA)

• Scott's Addition Business Association

• Shop Ashland First

• Spotlight Richmond (Christian Business Directory) 

Why?

FACT 1:
Modest changes in consumer spending habits can generate substantial local economic impact. For every $100 in customer spending at Borders, the total local economic impact is only $13. The same amount spent with a local merchant (author’s note: ie, Chop Suey, Fountain, Narnia, Book Room, etc) yields $45, more than three times the local economic impact. 

FACT 2:
Development of urban sites with directly competitive chain merchants will reduce the overall vigor of the local economy and ultimately the purchasing choices you, the customer, have. New and different local merchants bring a complementary (instead of competing) line of goods to the market, leading to increased choices among merchants with similar but unique lines of goods.

FACT 3:
If each household in Travis County simply redirected just $100 of planned holiday spending from chain stores to locally owned merchants, the local economic impact would reach approximately $10 million. (author’s note: Metro Richmond is similar in size to Austin, so the economic impact is probably similar)

from Economic Impact Analysis: A Case Study of Local Merchants vs. Chain Retailers 

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