Salt Lake County to Conduct Comprehensive Economic Impact Study

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At the urgings of the Salt Lake Vest Pocket Business Coalition [VPBC] -- an independent business alliance with approximately 200 members -- Salt Lake County recently agreed to fund a comprehensive study on the economic impact of locally owned businesses in the Salt Lake metropolitan area. The Salt Lake County Council has committed $30,000 in 2004 for the study, which will be conducted by the University of Utah's School of Business. The school will work directly with the county council.

In addition, the city of Salt Lake has committed $20,000 to support VPBC's "Local First" campaign. Based on a model developed by the Business Alliance for Local Living Economics (BALLE), a national business network, the Local First campaign is a branding and public relations campaign that aims to communicate and educate the public and politicians about the value of supporting local businesses. "We felt the [economic study] would make the campaign more powerful," explained Betsy Burton of The King's English bookstore and one of the founders of the four-year-old VPBC.

VPBC Board member Kinde Nebeker, owner of Kinde Nebeker Design, said she hopes that the Salt Lake economic study will expand on Austin's "Economic Impact Analysis: A Case Study, Local Merchants vs. Chain Retailers." The Austin study, which was commissioned by Liveable City, a local Austin, Texas, nonprofit group; the Austin Independent Business Alliance; and Austin independent businesses BookPeople and Waterloo Records, indicated that for every $100 in consumer spending at Borders, the total local economic impact (LEI) is only $13. Conversely, the same amount spent at BookPeople, for example, yields $45 in LEI, more than three times as much. (To read the Austin study, click here.)

"The Austin study gives food for thought," Nebeker explained. "But in terms of showing what's happening in an economy, it's not conclusive." It is hoped that the School of Business will be able to compare the records of approximately 10 small businesses and 10 larger retailers. The hope is to show the "hard-nosed bottom-liners" in Salt Lake, both in the public and the government, that local businesses contribute significant economic value to an area and ultimately educate the policymakers who give incentives to developers.

In its short history, VPBC has caught the attention of city and county officials.

Burton explained that Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson is "on the side of local businesses." One reason she knows this is because, four years ago, VPBC sponsored a debate in the hopes of hearing the candidates' views on local business and their value to the community. Anderson announced that he would help locally owned businesses in Salt Lake. Another debate was sponsored this past October. Burton noted these debates "put people on the carpet. Rocky didn't do everything he's promised, so Local First was one way for him to keep these promises."

After the county council granted funding for the economic study, which was a key component of VPBC's Strategic Plan, developed last year with the assistance from BALLE, the group solicited the mayor's assistance, and the city granted the group $20,000 for the Local First campaign. Burton said, however, that the alliance's goal is to "get funding [for the Local First campaign] to the tune of $60,000."

With the funding, the group plans to hire a "very sharp PR firm," Nebeker said, "so the campaign is very professional." She noted things like "Keep Austin Weird" would not work in Utah, which is more conservative than Austin. "But it has nothing to do with politics," she stressed. "If you do it the right way, most people understand it."

It's all about the public's perception, Burton told BTW. "Over time, people began to think differently about the environment" because of environmental groups' public relations campaign. VPBC believes independent business alliances can do the same. "A local business alliance, if run with passion, is the most effective tool for making system changes so cities aren't run by developers driven by chains," she said. --David Grogan