The buy-local movement started by SAF Phoenix 2009 keynote speaker Cinda Baxter is generating buzz at the national level, with coverage in yesterday’s The Wall Street Journal as well as at the grassroots level in the floral industry. About 120 floral businesses have signed on to The 3/50 Project as participants. 

Several SAF members — mostly retailers, but also some wholesalers and growers — have put the article “Buy Local Push Goes Nationwide” from the June issue of Floral Management on their Web sites. Others are actively promoting the program to local businesses as well as customers.

Lori Wheat, AAF, of Lafayette Florist & Greenhouses, Inc., in Lafayette, Colo., planted the buy-local seed at her chamber of commerce recently. Wheat sent a copy of Floral Management’s article along with some starter ideas — like a special local resident discount day. “I’d like to see Monday as Lafayette Day and give local people a deal or some small special as a reward for shopping” in locally-owned stores, she said.

But while stimulating local purchasing is good for independent retailers, “this isn’t about charity,” Wheat says. “It’s about protecting the local character of our community and the well-being of neighborhoods,” said Wheat. The benefits to the consumer include convenience, higher service levels, local jobs and contributions to the local tax base.

Also solidly on The 3/50 Project bandwagon is wholesaler Katy Miller of Dillon Floral Corp. “Ninety percent of (our) customer base is independently owned flower shops. If they do not survive, neither will we, she said. Miller has made it her personal mission to get customers of the Bloomsburg, Pa., company involved. She started by reprinting the Floral Management article in their July 1 customer e-newsletter.

“Awareness is the first step to changing the revenue stream,” Miller said. “I believe most consumers probably are not aware of that their local community benefits directly from dollars spent in locally-owned stores.“ Simply thanking a customer for shopping at your store and handing them The 3/50 Project flier explaining the value of local purchases is a great place to start, she said.

The 3/50 site is filled with talking points to help retailers tell the buy-local story: “Why buy from corporate giants when you can support your neighbor, the person who sits next to you at church, the parent you see at your kid's soccer games — the folks who, in turn, keep your community vibrant by paying taxes, employing people, spending their advertising dollars locally?”

Buying local is a mindset, said Wheat, who credits her son with the spark that set her on the buy-local path. “He works for a local bicycle shop and he’s really big into shopping local businesses,” she said. “He was saying there’s a connection with how he spends his money, and the choices that he makes are very important to him.”

That’s the attitude Wheat hopes to get across in her buy-local effort and the mindset she hopes to create: “There’s a connection between our quality of life and our community.”