Buying Local — We Get It!

Posted in Just Thoughts, MooNews

We pretty much all get it. When we buy local, we know our dollars stay more local. That supports more jobs, more taxes paid locally, more economic activity stays local instead of going somewhere else. That’s a good thing. It makes sense. It’s what we do when we can.

Today’s economic conditions make buying local more important than ever. We also all know that buying local just to buy local doesn’t get it. The business you buy from still has to give you value — at the end of the day, you have to get a good deal for your money or you won’t buy there again — local or not. That’s just the way it works. That’s what makes America great and what makes it work — every business has the opportunity to succeed and has the opportunity to fail. If we’re local, we want a chance from our local Customers — we know we don’t have the right to their business — but we hope we get the opportunity to earn their business.

I was reviewing what Young’s buys — and who we buy from — as I was looking over our 2008 numbers. All things being equal, Young’s has always chose to buy local. But I’d never thought of looking at how much we buy local. I knew our purchases are mostly local, but I was really amazed at how local. I define local as within 60 miles of Young’s. Almost 90% of all purchases Young’s made in 2008 were from local companies — and more than 70% of that was from companies within 25 miles. This includes good and services.

Young’s will continue to buy local. We know that 80% or more of our business comes from local Customers — it just makes good economic sense for us to support the business.

Below is a list of local businesses we buy from (in no particular order) — and this list is not all of them — I apologize to any I missed in making my list! Yes, some of this list includes the local branch of a national or even international business — but they all have local employees and businesses that pay taxes — and I hope they all like ice cream and know of a good place to visit to get a dip or two of their favorite flavor!

I-Supply Company
Reiter Dairy
Hoskett Veterinary Service
Southwest Landmark
Smith’s Rolloff Service
A&B Asphalt
Gordon Food Service
A-C Service
Par Striping
Montgomery Insurance
Meadowview Growers
All-Phase Electric
Bowman & Landess Turkeys
Brown Publishing
Maine’s Towing
Mader Electric
Spradlin Bros Welding
Sysco Foods
Triec Electric
Bryce Hill
CED Electric
Catanzaro & Sons Produce
Champaign Excavating
Clark County Glass
Mad River Topsoil
Mike-Sells
Lavy Enterprises
Kaiser Fruit Farm
KW Burris
Janeco Janitor Supplies
Instantwhip Dayton
Home City Tent
Cox Ohio
Dayton Daily News
Custom Tire
Do It Best Harware
Holmes Printing
W.R Hackett Produce
Delille Oxygen
Dooley Septic Pro
Economy Linen
Ehman’s Garage
Electric Eel
Ellenbee-Leggett
Klosterman’s Bakery
Enting Water Conditioning
Ertel Publishing
Folck’s Country Cuts
Pepsi-Cola Bottling
Phares Pumps
RE Skillings
Blessing Water
Remington Steel
Rieck Mechanical Services
Schockman Lumber
Sherriff-Goslin Roofing
Farm Credit Services
WBZI Radio
Waterways & Pathways
White Glove Cleaning’
Woeber’s Mustard
Yellow Springs News
YMCA-Springfield
Carl’s Mustard
Coca-Cola
Berner Screen Print
Security National Bank