J’s notes breaks the story of a new Richmond based website called ShopRVA. The web site’s mission is laudable:Â
ShopRVA is a coordinated effort to direct the public towards shopping at local, independently owned businesses. This is not only to benefit small stores. The act of buying locally allows cities to be more self-sustaining and helps prevent intervention from corporate business. Small businesses also add to the unique nature of the city by providing services that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
This site actually originates from a VCU design class:
ShopRVA originated as an assignment in a graphic design class called Design Rebels taught by local artist and activist Noah Scalin, head of ALR Design. As part of the course, each student proposed an initiative that would have a direct benefit to the local community. Following this, a vote was taken to determine which proposal would become the final project and the concept for what would become ShopRVA was chosen because the students saw the impact that local business have on the makeup of Richmond as being both positive and significant and the group felt that this influence was something worth recognizing and promoting.
In his blog, Professor J is a tough grader pointing out some obvious flaws of version 1.0 (primarily, CONTENT…”in the realm of functionality it’s lacking….Part of this may stem from the fact that this is the result of a graphic design project and may simply focus too much on presentation and not enough on actual interaction or how best to deliver some content. “). Agreed, but let’s give the kids a break as it’s a class project after all. The design is clean, and the mission is fantastic (heart’s in the right place). I give them an A.
Now, in order to take ShopRVA to the next level, may I humbly suggest looking at a “best practice” from another state’s capital city. Check out the Austin Independent Business Alliance (an offshoot of the brilliant Keep Austin Weird campaign). As you can see, for this kind of site/movement to work, the independent businesses need to also collectively step up and take on the Strip Mall Borg head on. We can’t just simply rely on a small class at VCU to save us (thanks for getting the ball rolling though!). Check out the facts cited in the AIBA report Economic Impact Analysis: A Case Study of Local Merchants vs. Chain Retailers:
FACT 1:
Modest changes in consumer spending habits can generate substantial local economic impact. For every $100 in customer spending at Borders, the total local economic impact is only $13. The same amount spent with a local merchant (author’s note: Chop Suey, Fountain, Narnia, etc) yields $45, more than three times the local economic impact.Â
FACT 2:
Development of urban sites with directly competitive chain merchants will reduce the overall vigor of the local economy and ultimately the purchasing choices you, the customer, have. New and different local merchants bring a complementary (instead of competing) line of goods to the market, leading to increased choices among merchants with similar but unique lines of goods.
FACT 3:
If each household in Travis County simply redirected just $100 of planned holiday spending from chain stores to locally owned merchants, the local economic impact would reach approximately $10 million. (author’s note: Richmond is similar in size to Austin, so the economic impact is probably similar)
If you hate the homogeneity of the big chain culture, then stop supporting them. We, as Richmond consumers, should always choose a locally owned business first (everything from retail to restaurants). Let’s keep Richmond weird too.
For a whimsical perspective of this issue, see RVANews: Five Ways to Keep Your Holiday Shopping Local. 
UPDATE! The December 12 Style has a great article listing local options for shopping: Insider Trading–Buying local saves the world — and you may someday see that dollar bill again.