Andy Snow, owner of Nini’s Taqueria, works the line during Tuesday’s lunch hour. Nini’s and other local independently owned businesses will be participating in America Unchained this Saturday. The national event is meant to call attention to the importance of local businesses to local economies./Photo by Todd Newcomer.

by Amy Maestas

The old adage says, “Money talks.” Ever wondered how loud and to whom?

Depends on where you spend it, a small group of locals say. Throw down a few singles at a locally owned store, and most of that money ends up talking back to you. If you do the same at a corporate chain store, the chatter becomes much more distant.

The group, partly made up of local small-business owners, is hoping to drive that point home this Sat., Nov. 19. For one day, the group is asking local consumers to abstain from shopping at national chains and instead spend their money at independent local businesses. Doing so, group members say, will help prevent Durango from succumbing to global economic consolidation.

With the proliferation of chain stores across the United States, Durango included, independent businesses are finding themselves losing their footholds in local retail economies, says Maxine McClure, one of the event organizers. When that happens, she explains, communities lose diversity and turn into cookie-cutter clones.

“A community that becomes saturated with chain stores loses its uniqueness, in all ways.”

The event will be Durango’s first participation in the national event known as America Unchained!, which started in Austin, Texas, two years ago. Austin’s Unchained day was so successful that dozens of other cities joined the movement last year, ultimately injecting about $20 million into local economies. McClure says Durango’s involvement this year is one way to gauge interest in possibly creating a local chapter of the American Independent Business Alliance, which promotes the sustainability of locally owned businesses.

“This town is very grassroots,” she says. “It takes a certain mass desire to get something like this going. This is one way we can see how the increasing number of chains in Durango has changed us and what we can do about it.”

Group organizers are relying on national trends and studies conducted in other communities to determine how essential independent businesses are to the landscape and economy. Results show that independent businesses put almost triple the amount of their revenues back into their local economy than chain stores do.

A widely used statistic from a study done in Midcoast Maine and Andersonville, Ill., shows that for every dollar a consumer spends at an independent business, 45 cents of it goes back into the local economy. In comparison, for every dollar a consumer spends at a chain store, only 14 cents makes its way back.

Independent businesses typically rely on local services for banking, accounting, internet service, building supplies and more. Instead of looking to some corporate-contracted repairman, they hire the local wrench. When they need to build shelves for their goods, they head to the community hardware store. Owners also are tax-paying residents who have a vested financial and emotional interest in their own hometown. McClure says independent businesses are more likely to donate time and money to nonprofits and other community-oriented endeavors. Clearly, local business owners tend to engage themselves in ways that injects both dollars and pride in the economy.

Chains, however, seek these services elsewhere, usually wherever their corporate offices reside. Ultimately, money spent at these stores leaves and rarely makes it back. Mike Hurst, co-owner of Carver Brewing Co. and an event organizer, says all manner of decisions in chain stores are made in places that are out of touch with the community.

“There is a kind of obligation that independent business owners here have to give back, especially since we all feel so blessed to live in this community,” Hurst explains. “It makes small-business owners here aware of how they spend their money.”

Despite its relatively isolated location, Durango seems to be in lockstep with other communities in the United States that are experiencing an increasing presence of chain businesses. In the past several years, at least six national chain stores have opened in Durango. They aren’t small arrivals either. Wal-Mart, one of two retailers that accounts for more than 75 percent of general merchandise sales in the country, opened in 1998. Walgreens, one of the top two drugstore chains, which does more than 30 percent of the country’s prescription business, recently announced it has its sights set on Durango.

The retail consolidation trend has even spread abroad; a recent survey in Britain revealed the dozens of towns throughout the country are being “taken over by U.S.-owned chains.” The nonstop revelations are driving many residents in these places to demand consumers and governments take preservation measures, even instituting public policies to ensure locally owned businesses aren’t at a disadvantage.

Hurst and fellow event organizers note that although no studies have been done locally to measure the impact of chain stores on Durango, the national statistics are still applicable.

“Small businesses here still deal with the same level of expenses. The formulas may vary only slightly between communities,” he says.

Bobby Lieb, executive director of the Durango Chamber of Commerce, agrees. Since small businesses have similar costs and needs, the conclusion that they inject more money into the community is fair.

Lieb says the chamber welcomes and supports all types of businesses in Durango, chains included, but he sees value in the American Unchained event.

“The education component is very positive,” he explains. “It’s an ongoing process to educate the consumer … about how the dollar flows in the local economy. It’s not very often that people track what happens to their money when they spend it.”

McClure and Hurst are careful to avoid painting the event as anti-chain or create an “us-against-them” atmosphere. Hurst, who is on the Chamber of Commerce board, concedes it is unrealistic to expect the community to be chain-free. Instead, he says one of the intents is to bolster the pride among locally owned and independent businesses. He says much of it comes down to common sense. Spending money at independent businesses not only helps Durango residents retain a sense of place, it is also a way of funding capital improvement projects and various other government programs that affect them directly.

Organizers say that since this is Durango’s first American Unchained event, measuring its success will be difficult. To gauge it, group organizers plan to visit participating business after the event and gather verbal, even financial, feedback. They will also rely on the number of people who enter the drawing and the attendance at a movie screening slated for Nov. 20 (see sidebar).

McClure says that the daylong event is not just about garnering additional revenue for independent businesses or creating “any sort of fear.” Rather, it is about helping local consumers realize the influence of community collaboration and how the power of the dollar weaves a web of personal and economic relationships critical to a vibrant and diverse community.

“When you have a unique community, you get a different experience in many ways,” she says. “When everything comes down to time and money, you lose your soul.”