Becoming "Unchained" on November 21

The American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) is urging consumers in communities across the country to "unchain themselves" and to shop at local independent businesses on Saturday, November 21, the sixth annual celebration of America Unchained! Day. To help retailers, business alliances, and trade associations promote the campaign, which puts the focus on the economic contributions of locally owned businesses on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, AMIBA offers a range of resources. This year, Jeff Milchen, AMIBA's co-founder, said, there has been a " huge explosion of interest from Buy Local campaigns around the country."

The 2009 America Unchained! celebration is placing more emphasis on drawing people into the localism movement "a little more deeply," he said, by encouraging participants to become active in promoting the benefits of local businesses within their communities. "We want folks to take the initiative in their own communities," he explained. "To not only say that it's important to patronize local businesses, but to find ways to inspire others to become engaged in their communities."

America Unchained! evolved out of a 2003 event, Austin Unchained, created by the Austin Independent Business Alliance (AIBA), an AMIBA affiliate, whose president is American Booksellers Association Board member Steve Bercu of BookPeople. Austin alliance members organized the event to demonstrate that even one day of shopping at locally owned businesses would have a significant economic impact on the city.

In conjunction with the 2003 event, AIBA commissioned "An Analysis of the Potential Economic Impact of Austin Unchained," a study conducted by Civics Economics that indicated "the economic impact of a successful Austin Unchained event will be measured in the millions of dollars. This is the equivalent of dozens of new jobs in our community from a single day of changed consumer behavior."

In 2004, AMIBA took the campaign national, and participation has grown every year (even sparking Canada Unchained! north of the border). The event aims to plant seeds and heighten awareness before the holiday advertising deluge kicks into high gear.

Overall, the burgeoning localism movement has spurred interest from lawmakers, especially because of the ailing economy. "The biggest spike in interest is from local and regional government," said Milchen, who noted that the economic downturn "has woken up a lot of officials" to the fact that communities with strong local businesses fare much better in a recession. An event such as America Unchained! is a great way for an indie to drive home the message to local officials that local retailers return more economic value to the community than chain retailers.

It also offers participating retailers a great way to garner media attention, since media are attracted by the campaign's edgy name, and reporters love the opportunity to inject some spice into the obligatory, but routine annual rehashes about Black Friday and holiday shopping.

For the event, AMIBA provides free instruction and templates for posters, logos, button designs, press releases, and more for participants' use, and will help any organization with its outreach. "Buy Local" posters, window decals, and other educational materials are also available for purchase. For more information, go to www.amiba.net/Unchained.html --David Grogan