Published: August 16, 2009 07:27 am      

Keeping Southern Indiana weird

Weird is the new cool. You’ve seen the bumper sticker “Keep Louisville Weird,” but what does it mean, and how can Southern Indiana benefit from the idea? Should local consumers be keeping it weird on this side of the river?

New Albany bookseller Randy Smith explains. “The idea of ‘keeping it weird’ appeals to a younger crowd, but then, people are interesting. There’s a higher percentage of baby boomers on Facebook than there are kids — things are changing.”

Times are indeed changing, and the current economic climate is perhaps the biggest change of all. Whether or not Southern Indiana adopts a hip slogan summarizing the importance of shopping locally, facts are facts: dollars spent with locally-owned businesses go further in the community.

According to a report from the American Independent Business Alliance, each dollar spent at a local independent merchant goes three or more times further back into the local economy, compared to a dollar spent at chain-owned businesses. The report cites a study conducted in Austin, Texas, which concluded that for every $100 spent at a chain, $13 remained in the community — while $45 remained when spent with hometown businesses.

Uric Dufrene, Sanders chair of the Indiana University Southeast business department, has contributed to local economic studies concerning small business. “Consumers do want to shop and spend money with local businesses,” says Dufrene. “As a consumer myself, I always prefer dealing with a local establishment. However, the problem arises when local businesses try to compete on price alone. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to compete on price against the national chains.”

To that end, entrepreneur Anthony Westmoreland, of Westmoreland Pharmacy in New Albany, is surrounded geographically by competing chain pharmacies, yet his business is a success. “We have a lot more face time with our customers. When a customer knows who their pharmacist is, we become their go-to person. At our competitors, they have different people floating through there, and it may be a different person every day. We have the flexibility to do deliveries, set up reminders, all the little things that our customers need.”

Westmoreland has experience working behind the corporate pharmacy counter, before opening his own business. “Small business owners are really the last cowboys, the risk-takers. Our country was founded on that, people taking risks. What we lose sometimes with the large corporations — not to knock them — is that they have pooled their risk. If their location isn’t performing, they shut down and people lose their jobs, warehouses go vacant — they leave their mark on the community. Small business owners take a risk, but they put their blood and guts into it, and they have to make it work because they don’t have 50 other locations. They work that much harder for the support of the local community.”

Angela Hall, owner of Baby Chic Boutique in Jeffersonville, says “I never took the initiative to understand the effects of buying local until I was a business owner, myself. People don’t think about where their money goes. They money spent at my shop might go toward my son’s soccer cleats, for example.” Hall is one of many Southern Indiana merchants to join local business associations. As part of the Jeffersonville Main Street program, she shares a common vision with her entrepreneurial neighbors. “Now, on the way to my shop, people to get visit other local shops. I think that if people think about it they realize that their dollars trickle down throughout the community. But, most people don’t think about it. A busy, thriving downtown area attracts new businesses to the area, and more businesses and more tax dollars translate into growing communities. I think the vision all shop owners have for Spring Street is a busy downtown area with lots of foot traffic throughout the day into the evening, with consumers enjoying retail shopping for every age, dining casual and upscale, as well as art-centered businesses, all locally owned.”

According to the AIBA report, most small business owners invest much of their life savings into their businesses, which translates into a natural interest in the community’s long-term health. It is no coincidence, then, when local governments and not-for-profit boards become heavily populated with small business owners.

While a few large corporations are known for their charitable giving, locally-owned businesses often give a large percentage of their gross to support community causes. In-kind donations often make a more immediate affect on specific local causes than a trickle down donation to a national charity.

In addition to outright contributions, locally-owned unique businesses have the power to give back to their customers in their own ways. “New Albany went 57 years without a general bookstore,” says Smith. “We are the only independent bookstore in Southern Indiana except for one in Madison. We’ve supported local authors by devoting 5-10 percent of our inventory to locally-authored books and opening our doors with every book about Indiana in print on our shelves. We did that to make a point about this being a local bookstore, about this community.”

Smith plans to expand his business in response to customer demand. “We’ll be opening a coffee shop in September, to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the store. The progressive spirit of downtown New Albany wants a local coffee shop downtown, so we said ‘We’ll do it.’ It’ll be open when people need coffee — from six in the morning, to later in the evening than other local coffee shops.”

Keeping it unique (or even keeping it weird) is not a cost-savings strategy for either business owner or customer. “For consumers who want to shop on price alone, then the local business should not view them as their target market,” says Dufrene. “The locally-owned businesses should develop a strategy that will target the consumer who prefers amenities other than price. During a recession for example, you can still get those customers. You just have to be sure that the business is offering the value that consumers expect.”

Smith’s experience matches Dufrene’s theory. “Local patrons have to cut down on purchases right now, but they have told other people about the shop, and about our value, without lecturing about how the value stays in the community. New customers are happy to shop locally, once they know about us.”

If you would like to know more about local businesses, there are several resources available to help you find locally sold goods and services:

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Leslea M. Harmon is a freelance writer, a wife and mother of three children in New Albany. She can be reached at

leslea.harmon@gmail.com, or visit her Web site at lmharmon.com.