Buy Local Month Begins Today!

In addition to urging the community to shift their dollars to local businesses, LLF is showcasing the many ways local businesses make shopping and dining local for the holidays easy and convenient, with Buy Local “Easy Buttons”. This digital guide to easy local shopping consists of four categories: Clothing and Accessories, Food and Beverage, For the Home, and Services.

LLF has also created an online 2017 Buy Local Market calendar to help you find and enjoy the many pop-up markets that highlight local makers and craftsmen throughout the season. The calendar runs through the month of December and is updated as more markets are announced.

“If we don’t invest in what we value—the businesses unique to the Lowcountry and owned by our neighbors—we run the risk of losing what makes us special and becoming ‘Anywhere, USA,’” said Lowcountry Local First Executive Director Jamee Haley. “The dollar you spend with a local business – be it retail, with a service provider or an experience-based outing – is recirculating throughout the community, being passed along from neighbor to neighbor. For every dollar spent with a local business, three times more stays here in the community as compared to a dollar spent with a national chain. We urge the community to think before they spend, and choose local first as much as possible.”

LLF makes it easy to choose local first all year long by providing “buy local” badges to their certified local members to display in storefront windows and entryways, as well as maintaining an online local business directory. Visit LowcountryLocalFirst.org to browse more than 500 local-independent businesses by category, location, or keyword.