A friend of mine asked me about the buy local movement and young people. She wonders if young people (people under 40--gosh, I guess that excludes me?!) cared about the buy local 'movement.'
My response to her was that asking someone to buy local is sort of like asking someone to ignore the major principles of why people shop (aka ignore capitalism). The primary reasons we shop where we do is:
1. Selection. People want a wide variety of selection…aka: all the items you can find on Amazon.
2. Price. People want lower price. The lower, often the better. Even rich people are shopping at Costco these days.
3. Uniqueness. People want selection because often it allows them to find something unique that helps them stand out.
Shoppers under 40 are just like shoppers over 40--except they shop on Amazon more.
So the question becomes: How can a local retail shop appeal to these three fundamentals with the young shoppers--and thereby get them to shop local?
My answers:
1. Selection: Local stores can have the same or more selection than Amazon by using different marketing programs that partner them with manufactures. Bridge is one such program. A retailer using Bridge, for example, has more Beatriz Ball on its site than what is on Amazon. (I think there are other programs out there that also help the indies offer more selection or the same amount as Amazon.)
2. Price: Sure, Amazon offers low prices but shopping local in theory should be the cheapest route. After all, the item in in the shopper's hands…how can Amazon ship it from 100s of miles away and get the item to the consumer cheaper? The local price should offer a fair, reasonable, competitive price. Yet, it may still happen that shoppers may find it cheaper online (aka on Amazon). Please note: Amazon is all that matters. That is sadly the one thing that we all must compare ourselves to. That brings in price matching: shoppers are more likely buy local if the local shop matches prices with major online retailers. Best Buy is doing really well with this strategy with younger people. Likewise, local shops can offer a loyalty program of neighbors akin to Amazon Prime. For example, if you live within 10 blocks, you get 10% off. etc. Amazon is essentially doing this at universities across America: https://marketplace.bridgecatalog.com/chalkboard.cfm?id=12394 Why aren’t small stores doing it, too? :)
3. Uniqueness: People will always want to stand out and be different (better!) than others. Local shops really have a chance to offer unique goods. But sadly, if the goods are too unique, the local stores is stuck selling oddball things that are too unique. Do local stores have the ability to sell more unique, hand-crafted things than Amazon? I don’t know…in theory, nothing is ‘unique’ because everything is on Amazon. There may be things that people have not heard of so they are perceived as unique…but with a simple Amazon search, we realize they are not unique because there 402 available on amazon.
Once we address the above three principles of shopping, we can tackle: the heart. In addition to the three motives listed above, we can use emotion to boost the buy local movement amongst the young. For example, at the bottom of all of Bridge's retail web pages, we have added two flags:
1. The state flag of the retailer.
2. The American flag. The American flag is still the best brand in the world. That flag sells products.
A store in Mobile, Alabama told us its city has its own flag. Bridge output this city flag instead of the state flag at the bottom of pages. The “M” flag on this page is the city of Mobile flag: https://zundels.bridgecatalog.com/registry.cfm
Appealing to the heart also entails being showing faces and being liked. We recommend showing at least one staff person pic on on each web page. Those staff members go to the same church, the grocery store, restaurants, etc. as the young people. People buy because of price, selection, and uniqueness. They also overlook these things and sometimes just buy from those that they like. Being liked is important to having the consumer ignore the fundamentals of capitalism (price, selection, and uniqueness).