Local First compiling a directory

Local First Utah, a nonprofit organization promoting locally owned businesses, is compiling a directory that it says is designed to "help residents and tourists find businesses that help define Utah culture and contribute significantly to our local economy."

An online version of the directory is already available at www.localfirst.org, and a printed directory is expected to be ready for distribution in conjunction with Local First Utah's summer event, Independence Week, set for June 30 to July 8.

About 30,000 copies of the advertisement-free directory will be distributed free at locally owned establishments throughout Utah, according to Local First Utah executive director Gavin Noyes.

Local First is accepting registrations for the printed guide until April 20. To register, visit www.localfirst.org or call 801-456-1456.

"Our primary goal in all of this is strengthening the community," Noyes said. "We see one great way to do that is to bridge the gap between residents and local business owners.

"We really want to help the public understand what locally owned businesses offer to the community, and how different that is compared to what chain stores contribute. It goes well beyond economics, to culture, to environmental impacts, to really just expanding the depths of community and people's commitment to it."

The guide will be about eight inches tall and five inches wide, and about 100 pages long, Noyes said. To qualify, businesses must be at least 51 percent owned by Utah residents and independently operated. Noyes said there are 951 businesses now registered in the directory.

Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore is one of them.

"The people who shop here appreciate that we are local. They make a conscious decision to shop here, and it makes a difference," Jim Rosinus, general manager of Sam Weller's, said in a statement.

There is no fee for joining Local First or appearing in the directory, Noyes said.

"We want people to embrace their communities and to be able to show them off," Noyes said. "One of the ways to do that is to get to know the locally owned businesses and really take advantage of what they have to offer, which should be and is different from anything else in the world."

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E-mail: jnii@desnews.com