San Francisco Merchants Form Local Business Alliance

San Francisco is in transition, said Neal Sofman, owner of A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books. Real estate values have escalated to the point where it's "almost unaffordable to buy a home or rent retail space" and, he noted, this is just the kind of market landscape that can drive away locally owned businesses and attract large chains -- "a fight that's going on right now." But rather than sit idly by as homogeneous chains replace local stores, Sofman decided that the local merchants of San Francisco needed to be proactive, that they needed to band together in order to survive. "Because if we don't, we won't be anywhere," he said.

And so, after an initial meeting with Hut Landon, the executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) a few months back, the idea to create the San Francisco Locally Owned Merchants Alliance (SFLOMA) was born. This month marks SFLOMA's official launch.

Of course, SFLOMA is not only about protecting the welfare of its member merchants, Sofman stressed. It's about protecting the welfare of San Francisco's present economy and maintaining its unique homegrown character for current and future generations to enjoy. The results of economic studies, such as "The Andersonville Study of Retail Economics," which illustrates that local merchants contribute significantly more money to the local economy than do retail chains, have provided the foundation for SFLOMA's main focus.

Click for larger pdf image

"When you shop at independent merchants, you contribute [over] 60 percent more to the local economy than when you shop at a chain -- much less when you shop on the Internet," Sofman said. "That's something concrete that we can tell the public -- here's something in their economic self-interest.... What is the impact in terms of the strength of your economy and tax base? Now, we have something to communicate."

After their initial meeting, Sofman and Landon met with two local hardware store owners to discuss the creation of a local alliance. The idea intrigued the hardware store owners. "Very few retailers work together like booksellers," Sofman said. "But they said, if you draft a letter of invitation to other merchants [to a meeting to discuss starting an alliance], we'll get some folks there."

Sofman sent letters of invitation to approximately 100 San Francisco merchants and, in May, about 50 merchants attended a preliminary meeting, which was conducted at NCIBA's offices. While many of the merchants belonged to neighborhood merchants alliances of some kind, Sofman said, "What we wanted to do was create a citywide organization of locally owned merchants ... which would inform and educate the public on the economic advantages of shopping at locally owned merchants. [SFLOMA] is very focused."

SFLOMA created a steering committee, which includes booksellers Pete Mulvihill of Green Apple Books and Gary Frank of The Booksmith, as well as Sofman. The committee met once a week at the NCIBA office throughout the summer to formulate the organization's structure.

SFLOMA's first launch meeting is this week. "We are working with a rep from BALLE [the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies]," Sofman said, "so we did not have to go back and reinvent the wheel. They have a work book, Local First Campaigns: A How-To Kit, and we used a lot of their materials."

Sofman noted that it's important for SFLOMA to entice as many San Francisco merchants as it can to join. "The idea was to make entry level into SFLOMA very, very low cost. It's $25 for a year." He said the ultimate goal is for SFLOMA membership to number in the thousands so the alliance can "be a real force." Also key is to reassure prospective members that participation in SFLOMA "does not require a lot of labor," because, while most business owners he talked to liked the idea of an alliance, most also stressed that they had little or no time to work on it.

To help promote the alliance and garner publicity, members of SFLOMA are provided with an "eye-catching decal," which they can place in their store window, and the alliance will provide them with a poster, which they can hang in their stores. The more stores that have the decal and poster prominently displayed, the more likely consumers will begin to inquire about the group and the benefits of shopping locally, Sofman predicted.

Another way SFLOMA is getting the word out is by working with San Francisco's Small Business Commission in a "Shop Local First" campaign, planned for late November and early December.

"We're not asking that people only shop at local stores, but that we should be the first call," Sofman said. "If we can develop a large enough organization, a good group in each neighborhood, and increase awareness to change the purchase habits of 10 percent to 20 percent [of consumers] -- that could help the community and create a unity of consciousness [regarding] locally owned merchants and how important they are to the community.... When one merchant disappears, it weakens the community."

For more information on SFLOMA, click here.-- David Grogan