KEARNEY CHAMBER - "STAY" Kearney this Season!
With the holiday season around the corner I want to share a few reasons and reminders to STAY (Shop, Taste, Adventure, Your) Kearney. Below are some reasons of the importance of supporting your local Kearney area businesses.
1. To shape and preserve our distinctive community character. The casual encounters you enjoy at businesses and the public spaces around them build relationships and community cohesiveness. They’re the ultimate social networking sites! Plus, Buffalo County has the best customer service.
2. You support our schools, police and fire departments. When you STAY Kearney, the bulk of the money you spend and most of your taxes stay local helping schools, paving streets, keeping you safe. According to the research firm Civic Economics, for every $100 you spend
-In a local small business, $68 stays in your community.
-At a local branch of a chain store, $43 remains.
-Online, virtually no money stays local.
3. Local competition and diversity leads to more product choices. A wide variety of independent businesses, each serving their customers’ tastes, creates greater overall choice for all of us. If you want to continue to see a variety of Kearney area businesses coming to town then STAY Kearney.
4. You’ll help support local job and opportunity creation. Not only do Kearney area businesses employ more people directly per dollar of revenue, they also are the customers of local printers, accountants, wholesalers, farms, attorneys, etc., expanding opportunities for local entrepreneurs.
5. Research shows a strong correlation between the percentage of small locally-owned firms and various indicators of personal and community health and vitality. STAY Kearney keeps you healthy!
6. It strengthens our economy because Kearney area businesses reinvest in our community. Kearney area businesses are owned by people who live in our town, attend our churches, donate to the Human Society, coach Little League teams, attend UNK events, support the Micro Soccer teams, etc. When you spend money in their stores and cafes, you support your neighbors.
Because the Kearney area businesses help fund local non-profits. Kearney area businesses donate significant amounts of their revenue to local non-profits as well as events and teams compared to zero dollars from online stores and stores outside of Buffalo County. When is the last time you saw Amazon on the front of your child’s sports team jersey? Show me a donation to a local nonprofit from eBay. I haven’t seen any of the out-of-town outlet stores sponsoring any events in the Kearney area.
It encourages community pride and ownership. Kearney area businesses help give our community its distinct personality. It’s what makes the Kearney area great!
STAY Kearney this holiday season!
— Derek Rusher, Kearney Area Chamber President and CEO