Small firms pushing Utahns to buy local

While national chain stores rely on slick marketing campaigns and fancy jingles to sell their products, small-business owners are banding together to urge Utahns to buy local.

On Thursday, the Buy Local First Utah organization launched its Independents Week, a promotion through July 15 to generate more patronage at locally owned stores.

Betsy Burton, chair of Buy Local First, said roughly 600 businesses across the state have joined the campaign, up from about 300 last year.

In the 1990s, Burton said, the public favored big chain stores over small independent businesses.

"In this decade, I think the movement actually is back towards small and local and independent," Burton said. "Proof of that is the fact that Wal-Mart is using the word 'community' in all of their ads now."

The push to buy local has the backing of Salt Lake City, which donated $40,000 to the cause. Salt Lake County also contributed $20,000, and Zions Bank threw in $8,000. The money will be used in promotional materials and advertising.

Even LaVell Edwards, Brigham Young University's former football coach, threw his support behind Buy Local during Thursday's launch.

Last year, Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson signed a proclamation designed to steer shoppers away from big-box retailers and into home-grown businesses. However, Tony Caputo, owner of Tony Caputo's Market Deli, said he would not discourage people from shopping at national chain restaurants and stores. "The better your competition is," Caputo said, "the better you become."

"The big guys sell good products, but we know everything we sell," Caputo said. "We cater to the people that want to get something a little bit different."

Burton noted that the "Buy Local" campaign does not advocate that chains should disappear.

"My feeling isn't that small is good and big is bad," Burton said. "What we advocate is that people spend enough time and attention at locally owned independent businesses to keep us part of the community."

Independents Week will feature a screening of the new film "Independent America," co-sponsored by the Salt Lake City Film Center, at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Salt Lake City Public Library.

The film by Hanson Hosein and Heather Hughes tracks the couple as they journey across America but avoid interstate highways and only shop at "mom & pop" stores. The film's screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Hosein.

Yet the lines are sometimes blurred in the quest to buy only local. At Caputo's, many of the market's products are purchased from other independent Utah businesses, like Crumb Brothers, based in Logan. Yet other specialty products, like Strozzapreti pasta, are imported from Europe.

"In fact, I have a container on the water right now," Caputo said. "It left Naples yesterday."

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E-mail: danderton@desnews.com