America Unchained! Set for November 17

On November 17, the Saturday prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, some 48-plus communities around the country will be urging residents to shop at locally owned independent businesses for the day. It's all part of America Unchained!, the national celebration sponsored by the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA). Independent retailers, business alliances, and trade associations are all invited to participate in the fourth annual event. To help communities get started, AMIBA offers a variety of supporting materials via its website, www.amiba.net.

"We've had a really good response so far," said AMIBA Director Jennifer Rockne. "This event gets more exciting every year. We get more people inquiring ahead of time [about participating] -- folks from all over. It's nice to see that people want to participate and that they believe that this has value for their community." She added that America Unchained! is timed prior to Black Friday "to catch people before the bulk of their gift buying."

As in previous years, a key focus of the America Unchained! event is the findings of Civic Economics' Andersonville Study and "Economic Impact Analysis -- A Case Study: Local Merchants vs. Chain Retailers," both of which clearly illustrate that local retailers return more economic value to the community than chain retailers.

Rockne told BTW that many independent bookstores are participating, but there's room for plenty more. "I'd love to see more bookstores everywhere get involved. The campaign is easy to pull together because it's mainly a media campaign, and we have materials available."

The key, Rockne stressed, is to educate consumers that where they spend their dollars has a significant impact on their community. When residents spend money with locally owned independent businesses, studies have found that it directly helps their community's economy at a far greater rate than if they spend their money at chains.

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 its expectations were correct. "The economic impact of a successful Austin Unchained event will be measured in the millions of dollars," the report said. "This is the equivalent of dozens of new jobs in our community from a single day of changed consumer behavior."

When participants register for America Unchained!, Rockne explained, AMIBA provides them with access to templates for posters, a logo, button designs, press releases, and more for local customization. AIMBA also encourages participants to develop their own organizational items. --David Grogan