Are We Really Saving Money

The most striking element from the Kingsolver reading this week was a quote she said in chapter ten on page 149, “Buying your goods from local business rather than national chains generates about three times as much money for your local economy.” This quote sounds great but I wanted to look more into what she said and I wanted to know if what she said was actually true. I was surprise to find countless websites that provided her point but one website, http://www.newrules.org/retail/key-studies-walmart-and-bigbox-retail#1, that I found used New Orleans as an example of buying locally vs. a nation chain. The study used Super Target as the national chain. The study looked at 15 locally owned businesses in New Orleans and compared their impact on the local economy to an average Super Target impact on the economy. It found that only 16% of the money spent at Super Target stays in the local economy compared to 32% of the money spent at local businesses stay in the local economy. The study also said if residents and visitors were to shift 10% of their spending from chains to local businesses, it would generate an additional $235 million a year in local economic activity. The final thing the study looked at was the land usage between local and national chains. The study looked at a four-block stretch of Magazine Street that provides 179,000 square feet of retail space and hosts about 100 individual businesses that generates $105 million in sales, with $34 million remaining in the local economy. In contrast, a 179,000-square-foot Super Target generates $50 million in annual sales, with just $8 million remaining in the local economy, and requires an additional 300,000 square feet of space for its parking lot.” Kingsolver ends the paragraph by saying that, “Today’s bargain always seems to matter more.” As a consumer we worry about the price tag on the item and but are we really saving more by shopping at the national chain?