ON THE AVENUES: Prom planning's nice and all, but New Albany still needs an autonomous independent business alliance.

“Good morning, Mr. Baylor. How are you doing?”

“Well, I’m doing fine, and as soon as I haul this kitty litter home it will be time for another coffee, and maybe that will help a bit, at least until cocktail hour. Actually, you can make a pretty strong argument for cocktail hour almost any time of day, except you run into those pesky wee hours when the bars are all closed, but that’s why sensible folks keep their liquor cabinets stocked at home, because your living room never closes. Flasks are even better. They keep your libation of choice toasty and close, and did you know that flasks were popularized during Prohibition? That’s right, we needed a 13-year-long flask to maintain harmony until the bars reopened after Repeal. Hell, we still do. If it was up to me, we’d have a museum about Prohibition, and force the school kids to go. Until then, there’s always cold beer and hot tickets.”

“You’re all set. Have a great day, Mr. Baylor.”

---

I won't deny that a quarter-century of small business ownership has left me a tad exhausted. Near the end of my NABC tenure I often wistfully recalled the words of John Kennedy Tootle's fictional Miss Trixie from his novel, A Confederacy of Dunces.

"Am I retired?"

But it's hip to be square, so last week I attended Develop New Albany's neighborhood soiree at Breakwater. As parties go, it wasn't too bad. The food and music were great, the acoustics horrendous and the beer selection embarrassing, but what left me baffled like always was the preposterous litany of talking points as presented by a succession of DNA board members in a feat of non-ironic propaganda that would have curled Khrushchev's hair.

Did I mention Nikita was bald? The Breakwater residents in attendance were looking around and saying, dude, who are these people?

Let's paraphrase DNA's ludicrous City Hall-ghosted script.

Independent businesses have invested $60 million or more in downtown New Albany these past ten years -- and so DNA will continue to take credit for the success of these investments in spite of the plain fact that DNA has had absolutely nothing whatever to do with them.  

All a guy can do is stand there clutching his flask and thinking, "Hallucinate often?" Yes, there are many things a high school prom planning committee can legitimately achieve, occasionally stepping out of character by utilizing an idea that wasn't brazenly stolen from someone else, but for them to persist in claiming a leading role when it's really been someone else's time and money is ludicrous and surreal -- and it needs to stop.

This is why New Albany's next mayor must immediately redirect DNA willingly or otherwise back toward National Main Street’s Four Point approach, thus helping DNA to get its local mission right for once, and by doing so openly address a key element of economic vitality by stating the unvarnished truth:

New Albany's ongoing revitalization has been led almost entirely by independent locally-owned small businesses, which have invested cash, energy and creativity alongside a cadre of primarily hometown local developers and builders. As such, the next logical grassroots step is for City Hall to help midwife an independent business association -- then get the hell out of the way.

I've bounced this idea off David White, and he gets it. If Mark Seabrook and Dan Coffey are reading, please let me know what you think.

Back in 2011, an independent business association is exactly what Jeff Gahan told some of us he was going to put his weight behind. He didn't, and as we've since learned, he couldn't, any more than my cat can sprout wings and zoom to a grain-fed all-mouse deli in New Jersey.

Gahan's only default mechanism is control, and he annexed DNA in precisely the same fashion as the housing authority, hitching it to his own circled wagon and rendering this purportedly non-political organization into an in-house appendage of his re-election campaign.

Coming soon: mandatory ribbon cuttings for all New Albany businesses -- five or six times until November, if necessary to re-enthrone Dear Leader.

Naturally, using DNA as a plaything provides greater benefits to Gahan for keeping his cult of personality afloat, but an independent business association would offer far greater returns in economic advancement for the entire city. Sadly, beginning in 2012 we learned the hard way that when City Hall generates a head wind against you, it's unlikely you'll be getting up to speed.

This isn't to excuse the independent locally-owned small business community for a certain level of ongoing passivity, only to recognize with eyes wide open that while Gahan has alarmingly few abilities as a cash-stuffed political hack, one of them undoubtedly is a degree of skill at playing the "divide and conquer" game.

Bullying goes hand in hand with this, and fear of the consequences makes it problematic for indies to resist, so pending the imminent electoral flushing of the patronage clique, indies can get started by heeding the advice of the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) and embracing a simple but eloquent truth: 

 "There truly is strength in numbers."

AMIBA's characterization of the situation follows. If you own a business or know someone who does, please read and share it.

Because Community Matters

Think of your favorite shop, restaurant, farm or service provider. We’ll bet it’s a homegrown business. Independent locally-owned businesses are essential to a vital local economy and community character. They’re where the locals go. They’re owned by our friends and neighbors, or maybe even by you.

Community-serving businesses are the backbone of local economies, civic life, local charities, and wealth creation for millions of citizens, as well as a training ground for future generations of entrepreneurs.

Problem: Today, independent businesses face unprecedented competition from larger chain competitors, internet merchants and franchises that enjoy national or international branding power and major economies of scale. As a result, community-based businesses comprise a smaller portion of our economy than ever before. We’ll lose much more than places to shop, dine or do business if we allow current trends to continue.

A Proven Solution: Many cities and towns have discovered a model, pioneered by the staff of the American Independent Business Alliance, to counter these trends successfully and help local entrepreneurs thrive. More than 85 communities in North America now boast Independent Business Alliances to unite independent businesses across all sectors, along with concerned citizens to build vibrant, durable local economies. AMIBA can help you use our models to implement an effective buy local campaign, pass pro-local public policies, facilitate effective collaboration among local businesses and more. There truly is strength in numbers. Learn more about benefits of AMIBA affiliation or the four realms of IBA work. You’ll love what an IBA can do for your business or community!

Why expend the effort? Because division is so costly.

When it comes to power, a vacuum is a condition waiting to be filled. In New Albany, with Gahan's default imperative remaining absolute control to the exclusion of intellectual content, entities like DNA (and to an extent One Southern Indiana) are delighted to fill the vacuum created by the absence of indie self-organization, which if achieved would advance the indie business segment's economic interests as a cohesive bloc and make possible the concentration of power as a purpose-built collective.

How many members of Gahan's City Hall clique have ever owned an independent small business? If indies are to have an organization, shouldn’t it be an organization whose primary purpose is to advance the clout of indies? Indies themselves know best, don't they? 

What's more, there is no reason why a New Albany Independent Business Alliance (for a model, think LIBA, the Louisville Independent Business Alliance) could not exist in cooperation with a reformatted DNA’s economic vitality mission, as a component of what National Main Street now refers to as “cross-cutting Community Transformation Strategies." Genuine possibilities exist.

The point is this:

Independent locally-owned small businesses have driven New Albany’s revitalization, and yet in terms of decision-making, the reins are nowhere close to the hands of the folks who’ve done the work.

Why do we not insist on input -- on power -- commensurate with our achievements?

Gahan desires a rubber stamp, not an active and equal partner, but if the mayor and his lickspittles are unwilling to cooperate, shouldn't we be eager to usher forth the era of "next" as quickly and expeditiously as possible?

#FireGahan2019

---

Recent columns:

February 26: ON THE AVENUES: Pretty in pink slips, aren’t they? Those who mutilated Speck need to be cashiered.

February 22: ON THE AVENUES SPECIAL: Take your cult of personality and shove it, Dear Leader.

February 19: ON THE AVENUES: I'd stop drinking, but I'm no quitter (the 2019 Gravity Head remix).

February 12: ON THE AVENUES: If it's about learning and knowledge, then by definition it's a Gahan Free Zone. You're welcome.

February 5: ON THE AVENUES: Our mayor hates non-elected boards -- except when they're his own, which is why "hypocrisy" is spelled G-A-H-A-N.

THE BEER BEAT: Dollars and cents remain the most rational arguments against AB InBev.

Consider it equal time.

The author makes excellent points about the nadir of debate and dialectic, and the tribalism, and the chest-thumping.

Still, my fundamental stance v.v. AB InBev and other manifestations of Monstrous Chainthink remains unchanged, and for reasons that aren't at all emotional.

Rather, it's factual. Lots and lots of people with no connection whatever to beer or brewing already have done their homework as it pertains to what independent local business means; where the money goes, and where it stays. Two of them are here:

American Independent Business Alliance

Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

My rule of thumb: To know these principles is to be able to walk the walk when making beer choices.

Yes, it's a matter of shift, and no one's playing to be perfect, because when it comes to philosophical concepts, perfection simply doesn't exist.

There'll always be exceptions, but life is about the everyday. In the main, as a consumer, I'd like to know exactly where my money is going. Whenever possible, I'd like to see my money directed to indies.

It's as simple as that. If I couldn't get good beer without my money going to multinationals, then I'd either submit or stop drinking. However, this isn't the case.

Yet.

Dialectic Lost – We Can’t Talk about Beer Rationally Anymore, by Oliver Gray (Literature & Libation)

... There’s no dialectic where people are trying look at big beer’s practices objectively or taking a real critical eye to the BA, to figure out whos and whys and hows. There’s certainly never any talk of collaboration, because obviously, you never work with an enemy. There’s hardly even any exploration in why a thing deemed so bad is actually bad; I only need two fingers (one and two) to count the number of well written articles directly about AB-InBevs strategy. The rest of the bad will stems for theoreticals and hard headedism.

Death to chains, by the numbers -- "The Multiplier Effect of Local Independent Businesses."

The obvious question: If local independent business recirculates more revenue locally, why do the local government economic incentives and abatements inevitably flow to the chains?

The most recent example is Summit Springs. City Hall happily bills itself as a partner in this development, and city funds will be used to make it a reality. There'll be two hotels, both chains, along with three restaurants (need we ask?), on a commercial strip already dominated by big box retail.

In effect, in this and other projects like it, the city overlooks the multiplier by subsidizing the businesses most likely to recirculate less revenue locally.

The Multiplier Effect of Local Independent Businesses (AMIBA)

Clearly communicating the importance of the local economic multiplier effect or “local premium” is a key part of effective “buy local” and public education campaigns. The multiplier results from the fact that independent locally-owned businesses recirculate a far greater percentage of revenue locally compared to absentee-owned businesses (or locally-owned franchises ... in other words, going local creates more local wealth and jobs.

I can hear the excuses now -- except I can't. City Hall doesn't publicly discuss matters like this, does it?

And that's the real problem, isn't it?

Meanwhile, even the area's premier publication for chain glorification gets the memo.

Chain restaurants only do three things better than independents, study says, by David A. Mann (Louisville Business First)

Independent restaurants seem to have an advantage over their chain counterparts in a number of different operational and emotional metrics, according to a new consumer study.

The study came from industry consulting firm Pentallect and research partner Critical Mix. Consumers give independents the edge in 12 of 15 metrics being surveyed.

Independent restaurants seem to have an advantage over their chain counterparts in a number of different operational and emotional metrics, according to a new consumer study ...

ON THE AVENUES: There has never been a better time for an Independent Business Alliance in New Albany.

ON THE AVENUES: There has never been a better time for an Independent Business Alliance in New Albany.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

Before we begin, kindly indulge a relevant digression amid the Chronicles of New Gahania.

“Good morning, Mr. Baylor. How are you doing?”

“Well, I’m doing fine, and as soon as I deposit this pittance of a check, it will be time for another coffee, and maybe that will help a bit, at least until cocktail hour. Actually, you can make a pretty strong argument for cocktail hour almost any time of day, except you run into those pesky wee hours when the bars are all closed, but that’s why sensible folks keep their liquor cabinets stocked at home, because your living room never closes. Flasks are even better. They keep your libation of choice toasty and close, and did you know that flasks were popularized during Prohibition? That’s right, we needed a 13-year-long flask to maintain harmony until the bars reopened after Repeal. Hell, we still do. If it was up to me, we’d have a museum about Prohibition, and force the school kids to go. Until then, there’s always cold beer and hot tickets.”

“You’re all set. Have a great day, Mr. Baylor.”

---

Last week, I glanced in the general direction of Develop New Albany and suggested DNA begin healing itself by heeding the relaunch of National Main Street’s Four Point approach.

ON THE AVENUES: DNA, National Main Street, the Four Points, and how it might yet be possible to get this thing right for once.

After all, isn't cooperation a two-way street?

One of these points has to do with economic vitality, and in the New Albanian sense, economic vitality almost entirely has to do with independent locally-owned small businesses.

This week on Tuesday there was another merchant mixer meeting, and as has been the case so many times in the past – in fact, as it occurs each time I attend a merchant mixer meeting – I couldn’t help observing that in the context of downtown New Albany's ongoing revitalization, the effort has been led almost entirely by independent locally-owned small businesses, as well as a cadre of local developers and builders.

Yes, there are caveats aplenty. New Albany’s revitalization is imperfect and incomplete, but insofar as humans have returned to a once deserted downtown, it’s because independent locally-owned small businesses have taken the risks, invested, and transformed New Albany from a metro Louisville punch line into something different.

How different, and whether the results are sustainable, constitute the next huge hurdle. You’re entitled to my opinion, so here it is.

Independent locally-owned small businesses are mistaken to think that this hurdle can be cleared by disengagement, or by waiting for this or any other city government to dictate the terms.

Rather, independent locally-owned small business owners must evade the intended diversion of time spent micromanaging periodic events and instead put their mouths where their money is by heeding the advice of the American Independent Business Alliance and embracing a simple but eloquent truth: "There truly is strength in numbers."

AMIBA's characterization of the situation follows. If you own a business or know someone who does, please read and share it.

Because Community Matters

Think of your favorite shop, restaurant, farm or service provider. We’ll bet it’s a homegrown business. Independent locally-owned businesses are essential to a vital local economy and community character. They’re where the locals go. They’re owned by our friends and neighbors, or maybe even by you.

Community-serving businesses are the backbone of local economies, civic life, local charities, and wealth creation for millions of citizens, as well as a training ground for future generations of entrepreneurs.

Problem: Today, independent businesses face unprecedented competition from larger chain competitors, internet merchants and franchises that enjoy national or international branding power and major economies of scale. As a result, community-based businesses comprise a smaller portion of our economy than ever before. We’ll lose much more than places to shop, dine or do business if we allow current trends to continue.

A Proven Solution: Many cities and towns have discovered a model, pioneered by the staff of the American Independent Business Alliance, to counter these trends successfully and help local entrepreneurs thrive. More than 85 communities in North America now boast Independent Business Alliances to unite independent businesses across all sectors, along with concerned citizens to build vibrant, durable local economies. AMIBA can help you use our models to implement an effective buy local campaign, pass pro-local public policies, facilitate effective collaboration among local businesses and more. There truly is strength in numbers. Learn more about benefits of AMIBA affiliation or the four realms of IBA work. You’ll love what an IBA can do for your business or community!

---

Readers with long memories will recall that six or seven years ago, there began an effort to form an independent business alliance under the auspices of AMIBA. It was called New Albany First.

Currently, New Albany First is as defunct as Monty Python’s infamous parrot, and because the organization failed to gain traction, some will conclude that the principles it espoused also have been discredited.

I strongly disagree. To the contrary, I’m here to suggest that these principles are more important than ever before.

When it comes to power, a vacuum is a condition waiting to be filled. In New Albany, with local government barely a blip on the chart as it pertains to support for independent locally-owned small business development, groups like DNA and One Southern Indiana seek to fill a vacuum created by the inexplicable, ongoing inability of independent local small business owners to organize themselves, to advance their economic interests as a bloc, and to take seriously their potential power as such a purpose-built collective.

If business owners are content to outsource this clout to an organization, then shouldn’t it be an organization whose primary purpose is to advance the clout of business owners?

However, there is no reason why a New Albany Independent Business Alliance (for a model, think LIBA, the Louisville Independent Business Alliance) could not exist in cooperation with DNA’s economic vitality mission, as a component of what NMS now refers to as “cross-cutting Community Transformation Strategies." Genuine possibilities exist, but before they're leveraged, a level of clarity must be attained. This will take longer than hour-long meetings, once each month.

As for the legacy of New Albany First, we should be able to chalk it up to experience, and learn from our mistakes, but I’m less concerned with organizational details as I am with making the most important point of all to New Albany’s independent local small business owners.

Independent locally-owned small businesses have driven New Albany’s revitalization, and yet in terms of decision-making, the reins are nowhere close to the hands of the folks who’ve done the work.

Why do we not insist on input commensurate with our achievements?

---

August 11: ON THE AVENUES: DNA, National Main Street, the Four Points, and how it might yet be possible to get this thing right for once.

August 4: ON THE AVENUES: Federal funding mechanisms total eighty percent. The other half is unalloyed political malice.

July 28: ON THE AVENUES: An imaginary exercise tentatively called The Curmudgeon Free House.

July 21: ON THE AVENUES: We have our own Big Four Bridge. They’re called Main, Market, Spring and Elm.

July 14: ON THE AVENUES: Weeds, porch appliances and our civic Gospel of Appearances.

AMIBA: "Six Common Mistakes That Kill 'Buy Local' Campaigns."

Something to remember, assuming we ever get around to really doing it.

Six Common Mistakes That Kill "Buy Local" Campaigns, By Jeff Milchen and Joe Grafton (AMIBA)

Inspired by the apparent success of many long-term efforts coordinated by local grassroots groups, hundreds of U.S. communities have initiated “buy local campaigns” in recent years. The trouble is, only a fraction of those endured to create real shifts that benefit local entrepreneurs, while most fade away or dissolve quickly.

But don’t let that discourage you from what can be a superb investment to create more wealth and good jobs in your community. The good news for anyone considering a buy local campaign or instigating a local business coalition is most efforts fail for reasons both predictable and easily avoided, with the right guidance. Recognizing these six common mistakes and learning elements shared by the most impactful campaigns will give you a great chance for success!

Get your shift together.

For the principles behind the message, visit the American Independent Business Alliance website, and get your shift together.

Black is out: Indie shopping is in, and Plaid Friday is November 23.

NABC is a founding member of New Albany First, which is our city’s independent business association (IBA). It is the New Albany version of the Louisville Independent Business Alliance (LIBA), which encourages you to Keep Louisville Weird), and is dedicated to encouraging the public to support independently owned, small local businesses.

IBAs accomplish this through three primary focus areas:

1. Public education about the greater overall value local independents often can provide (even when they are not the cheapest) as well as the vital economic, social and cultural role independent businesses play in the community.

2. Facilitating cooperative promotion, advertising, purchasing, sharing of skills and resources and other activities to help local businesses gain economies of scale and compete more effectively.

3. Creating a strong and uncompromised voice to speak for local independents in the local government and media while engaging citizens in guiding the future of their community through democratic action.

NABC and our brethren sink or swim as locally oriented independents, and many of us have pledged support via New Albany First. Happily, the approaching holiday season provides a perfect opportunity to put principles into action.

We all know that “Black Friday” (November 23) is the biggest sales day of the year for big boxes and multinational chain stores -- the ones where the money flees town for corporate headquarters worldwide. In response to media hype and saturation advertising, which steer so much trade to the country's biggest, richest and largest companies on “Black Friday,” the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), of which New Albany First is a member, promotes Shift Your Shopping, of which Plaid (as opposed to Black) Friday is a component.

Instead of Black Friday it’s PLAID FRIDAY! Shift Your Shopping and wear plaid as you shop on Friday to remind yourself and others to make the 10% Shift. The 10% Shift encourages you to shift 10% of your holiday purchases from non-local businesses to Local Independents (also called indies or locally owned and independent businesses). Making the shift to local independents is one way we can build sustainable economies and create jobs in our local community.

It’s simple. You're not being asked to go cold turkey -- just allocate a percentage to independent local businesses, and learn what they can do for you. New Albany First can help locate indies, and another good idea is to follow the "buy local" answer woman, Kate Caufield, whose blog is devoted precisely to this topic: New Albany 365. Local independent business thank you for your support.

Note: Plaid Friday is part of NABC's annual slate of activities around Thanksgiving. For more details, go here.

Independent locally-owned businesses are revitalizing New Albany. Period.

AMIBA's annual conference begins later this week in Louisville. It is instructive to note that in the context of downtown New Albany's revitalization these past few years, the effort has been led almost entirely by independent locally-owned businesses. Concurrently, the local landscape is littered with groups seeking to take credit for this or that or another, and yet it has been independent locally-owned businesses in New Albany which have taken the risks, invested here, and made New Albany into something to talk about apart from its legendary deficiencies.

It is far, far past the time that we, as independent locally-owned business owners, should put our mouths where our damned money is and heed the advice of AMIBA: "There truly is strength in numbers." We have power, and yet we refuse to use it. We have only ourselves to blame if we continue thinking that a politician or a non-profit is going to do the work for us absent our active participation as business owners. Credit? It goes first to our customers, and then to us. The remainder can queue for whatever is left. Meanwhile, the following constitutes AMIBA's characterization of the situation. If you own a business or know someone who does, read it and share it. Thanks.

---

Think of your favorite shop, restaurant, farm or service provider. We'll bet it's a homegrown business. Independent locally-owned businesses are essential to a vital local economy and community character. They're where the locals go. They're owned by our friends and neighbors, or maybe even by you. Community-serving businesses are the backbone of local economies, civic life, local charities, and wealth creation for millions of citizens, as well as a training ground for future generations of entrepreneurs.

Problem: Today, independent businesses face unprecedented competition from larger chain competitors, internet merchants and franchises that enjoy national or international branding power and major economies of scale. As a result, community-based businesses comprise a smaller portion of our economy than ever before. We’ll lose much more than places to shop, dine or do business if we allow current trends to continue.

A Proven Solution: Many cities and towns have discovered a model, pioneered by the staff of the American Independent Business Alliance, to counter these trends successfully and help local entrepreneurs thrive. More than 80 communities in North America now boast Independent Business Alliances* to unite independent businesses across all sectors, along with concerned citizens to build vibrant, durable local economies.

AMIBA can help you use our models to implement an effective buy local campaign or IBA, pass pro-local policies, and more. There truly is strength in numbers. Learn more about benefits of AMIBA affiliation or the three realms of IBA work. You'll love what an IBA can do for your  business or community!

The American Independent Business Alliance is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. Learn more. *Independent Business Alliance is a registered mark of the AMIBA and is reserved for exclusive use by  affiliates.

Papa may be in the house, but "Shift Your Shopping" anyway.

It has been written that "anything less than consistency comes across as a profit-driven way of dividing people," which is why we refer to this point at selected intervals:

The Multiplier Effect of Local Independent Business Ownership (from AMIBA)

There's nothing divisive about the multiplier effect, and the forthcoming holiday shopping season strikes me as the perfect opportunity to put theory into practice. With striking consistency, advocates of the local, independent business sector have suggested shifting a percentage of one's expenditures. Neither Rome nor Veteran's Parkway was built in a day, and as consciousness is raised, incremental shifts will continue to reaffirm the central argument.

Shift Your Shopping: Choose Local and Independent This Holiday Season

Let’s build an annual tradition that strengthens local economies, expands employment, nurtures a sense of community, and provides a more relaxed, fun, and rewarding gift-buying experience.

As customers, we are about to collectively spend a large portion of our annual shopping budget between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31. If you join us in shifting those dollars to locally owned, independent businesses, we’ll all generate 2-3 times as much economic activity in our community than if we had spent our money at a national chain. Across North America, that could mean billions of dollars of economic impact.

Organizing for localism, with coffee.

New Albany First's guest, Jeff Milchen of AMIBA, returned to the upstairs meeting room at River City Winery on Saturday morning to continue the discussion about strategies to build independent local businesses in New Albany.

It was a strong turn-out, and I'm grateful to Stacie Bale of Earth Friends Cafe for the coffee ... it had been a long Friday evening of localism in practice (not theory).

Special thanks go to Andy Terrell, who has been putting together the pieces of the NA First puzzle. I duly resolve to be of more help in this effort.

I'd also like to recognize council candidates Diane Benedetti (on the right) and Eddie Hodges, who attended the Saturday morning session, and Steve Burks (council candidate) and Jack Messer (mayoral candidate), who came on Friday night.

"Always room for new firsts," and a grassroots organization to promote small, local, independent business.

New Albany First is the city's first-ever grassroots organization founded by, devoted to, and composed of small, local, independent businesses. Amid the usual troglodyte's bounty of doltish misinformation, it is important to remember why New Albany First matters: Helping Communities & Local Independent Businesses Thrive!, and the reasons therein, as enumerated by the American Independent Business Alliance.

There's more to it than that. It also stands to reason that if you're an indie, banding together with other indies to advocate the common cause is the very best way to gain a seat at the table, locally, and a measure of political influence commensurate with growing economic clout.

Businesses say there’s always room for new firsts; New Albany First meetings cater to new, established businesses, by Amanda Arnold (News and Tribune)

Now is the perfect time to open a business in downtown New Albany — even with the Sherman Minton Bridge closed for months to come — according to a group promoting local merchants in the river city.

“Things are coming together. There is a feeling in the county and especially in New Albany that we have to come together to make this work,” said Gary Humphrey, a New Albany Police Department officer and co-owner of River City Winery. “We all either moved here or grew up here, and we are here because we see something here and that is a reason why we stayed. We’ll keep pushing forward,” he added during a recent meeting of the group New Albany First, at New Albanian Brewing Co. off Grant Line Road.

The meetings are monthly with the purpose of encouraging local business owners to take the next step.

New Albany First upcoming events include information session, entrepreneurship seminar and a special guest.

(Submitted)

---

I wanted to fill you in on a few upcoming events that New Albany First will be hosting.

This Thursday, September 8th from 6p - 8p, we'll be hosting a public information session at the New Albanian Brewing Company on Grant Line Road in the Prost room. Many of you have attended one or more of these already and we certainly welcome to you to stop by and meet each other and potential members.

On Thursday, September 22nd we'll be having the first of our local entrepreneurship seminars again to be held at NABC Grant Line Road from 7p - 8:30p. NA First members Gary Humphrey of River City Winery and Roger Baylor from NABC along with Allen Howie of Idealogy will be discussing the issues facing opening a restaurant in New Albany with Allen talking about branding and marketing. One of the main goals of any independent business alliance is the encouragement of new locally-owned independent businesses in our area. This is one way we hope to fulfill that goal and with more seminars already in the works, we feel this is a great way to do that.

Finally, on October 28th/29th, we're very pleased to welcome Jeff Milchen to New Albany. Jeff is the co-founder of the American Indpendent Business Alliance (AMIBA) which is based in Bozeman, Montana. Jeff will be giving a keynote presentation on Friday night, Oct. 28th (time to be determined) and then a workshop the next morning. Both of these events are being hosted by the River City Winery. Jeff is an internationally known advocate for independent businesses and is highly sought after, so we're really happy he's going to come to New Albany to talk with us. More details on this to come.

Thanks to all of you for believing in this project and for your support.

Andy Terrell
Director, New Albany First

Another NA First update; next info session is Tuesday, June 2.

(From Andy Terrell, Director of New Albany First)

---

Hi everyone,

Just a few things to update you with on the progress of New Albany First.

As you know, we're in the middle of a membership push. The Board of Directors met last night and have set another public information session for Tuesday, June 2nd from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. to be held at Earth Friends Cafe (3211 Grant Line Road -Summit Square). Board members will be there to talk with business owners and other interested parties and answer any questions you may have. If you can't make that meeting and would like to talk to someone before that, please let me know by replying to this email and we'll set up an appointment for you.

The Board has decided to affiliate with both the American Indpendent Business Alliance (AMIBA) and the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). Our application with AMIBA has been filed, we'll wait a while on the BALLE membership. We did receive some great news this week - the 2012 AMIBA National Conference will be held in Louisville next spring. NA First has been invited to participate in the planning of this conference! This will be a tremendous opportunity for NA First and our members to showcase our independent businesses to people from all over the country. The first planning meeting is today and I'll update members as more information becomes available.

NA First will have a table at Exclusively New Albany on Thursday, June 9th from 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. This is an event sponsored by our friends at Develop New Albany and we're thrilled to take part. Stop by and say hi.

Other events are on the horizon as we continue to work at developing the membership roster. A website is on the way and preliminary talks on our printed "Think Local New Albany" guide have begun.

It's an exciting time, we hope all of you will be a part of what we're trying to do.

Independently speaking...

As the policy wing of our "local" chamber of commerce busies itself croaking dry mouthed praises of $6 Ohio River crossings to the accompaniment of a traveling Wall Street minstrel show, I'd suggest a different path altogether, pausing only occasionally along the way to piss in their general direction. With lips that chapped, the moisture would do them some good.

Besides, it's...



A statement from the American Independent Business Alliance:

As we honor national heritage and liberty, we also celebrate our nation's local independent businesses who have given so many citizens opportunity and underpinned and underwritten community life and prosperity. It's also a time to consider the independent decision-making ability each of us possesses to choose the future of the place we make our home.

And Frequently Asked Questions About Local First Campaigns from The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE):

(1) Aren't local goods and services more expensive?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The truth is we actually do not know. Careful studies of the comparative prices between local and non-local retailers are rare. But here are some intriguing data points.

*A recent survey of pharmacies in Maine, for example, found that chain drugstores there sold prescriptions at an average price 15 percent greater than local stores.

*According to Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, of the few studies available, a Consumer Reports study of bookstores found that Barnes & Noble and Borders prices are 4-8 percent lower than those at independent bookstores. Yet many of the best independent bookstores in the country now offer "frequent buyer programs" that completely erase these price differences for regular customers.

*Mitchell also notes that discount prices from chain stores are often temporary: An interesting aspect of the Maine survey was there were some dozen or so different Wal-Mart stores around the state included and prices for the list of drugs surveyed varied by 15 percent from the lowest-priced Wal-Mart pharmacy to the highest priced Wal-Mart. What was apparent was that Wal-Mart's prices are lowest in areas where it is fairly new on the scene, and highest in towns where it has largely eliminated the competition. What happens long-term to consumer prices as the number of competitors in the retail industry dwindles? Already two to three firms control a dominant share of every retail sector. Wal-Mart has 10 percent of all retail spending, more than 1/3 of the market nationally for numerous basic-needs products, and has a monopoly for some types of goods in many smaller communities. There's plenty of documentation that Wal-Mart routinely sells entire lines of goods below cost in order to squeeze the competition and gain market share. Then prices go up. It has done this in pharmacy goods, toys, gasoline, and now groceries.

A critical mission of Local First is to make sure consumers, businesses, and government purchasing agents ask the right question before spending dollars in a way that will hurt the economy: Is there a reasonably priced local alternative available?

(2) Isn't Local First protectionist?

Not at all. Local First is entirely about the free choices of consumers, businesses, and government purchasing agents. No one is being forced to buy local, and no tariffs or other burdens are being placed on non-local goods.

Some economists believe - incorrectly - that Local First must mean putting up trade barriers or inducing consumers to buy more expensive goods and services, which, as noted above, it doesn't. They also forget that economic models assume all consumers have perfect information. One way of looking at Local First campaigns is that they aim to give consumers better information - about the availability of attractive local goods and services, and about the significant benefits of buying local.

Paradoxically, Local First turns out to be the best way to develop prosperous links to the global economy. Export-led development usually means supporting a small number of globally competitive niches within a global economy. If one of these industries collapses - like automobiles in Detroit or steel in Youngstown - the entire local economy collapses as well, especially its export sectors. The work of Jane Jacobs and others has shown that import-replacing development, which underlies buy-local initiatives, tends to nurture hundreds of existing locally owned businesses, some of which will then become strong exporters. Development led by import replacement rather than export promotion diversifies, stabilizes, and strengthens the local economy.

(3) Does Local First seek to subsidize inefficient local business?

No. Free-market economists forget that the United States is a crazy quilt of thousands of market imperfections - subsidies, regulations, insurance liability limits, tax wrinkles - nearly all of which favor non-local business. Buy local campaigns are very modest efforts to adjust this tilt in the playing field. The tilt is so extreme - probably 99 percent of subsidies go to non-local firms - that we would have a very long way to go before it was undone.

(4) How sound is the methodology for the studies that show a better local multiplier for locally owned businesses?

Some critics have attempted to downplay the studies that have been done in Austin, Maine, and other places because of their small size and because they don't have complete data from the chain stores. To be sure, the methodology of these studies could always be improved, but the results are driven by a simple fact: Local businesses spend more locally - on local management, on local advertising, on local services, and on local profits. Because most economic multipliers are in the range of two to four times the initial expenditure, these differences in local business spending will always result in substantially greater benefits to the local economy.

(5) Aren't local businesses less regulated and therefore worse for the environment?

It's hard to generalize. Some communities have tougher environmental laws than the nation as a whole; some don't. Some types of pollution control devices work best at a large scale; others don't. There are four reasons, however, to believe that local businesses are generally better for the environment. First, many local businesses are service related, and these usually are labor intensive and have few environmental impacts. Second, a community is more likely to clean up a local polluter spoiling the local quality of life than to clean up a polluter located 10,000 miles away. Third, local business owners certainly have a higher commitment to clean water when their own children must drink it. Fourth, a community with primarily locally owned businesses - businesses that will not consider moving to Mexico or China - can raise environmental standards with greater confidence that these firms will adapt, which tips the political balance in favor of greater environmental responsibility.

(6) Don't local businesses pay worse wages?

Businesses with more than 500 employees pay about a third more on average than businesses with fewer than 500 employees. But these wage differences have been shrinking in recent years, as many high-paying larger firms move factories overseas and as low-wage retailers like Wal-Mart displace existing small businesses. Moreover, studies suggest that over time, as smaller businesses naturally mature and grow, these wage differentials largely disappear.

(7) Shouldn't we leave the market alone?

A healthy market requires, as Local First insists, that consumers fully gather information about available local alternatives before they make purchasing decisions, in full awareness that every dollar spent locally will have two to four times more benefit than a dollar spent non-locally.

(8) Are Local First campaigns legal?

Unquestionably. In a free-market economy, consumers and businesses may make any purchasing decisions they wish. And in a free-speech society, citizens may persuade one another why local purchases are advantageous. The only real legal questions concern government procurement policies that give preference to local bidders. The U.S. Supreme Court generally has held that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which normally prevents officials from discriminating against goods on the basis of origin, does not apply when they are acting as market participants, which is the case for procurement officers. The World Trade Organization and other trade agreements, however, may weaken the ability of officials to discriminate against non-U.S. goods and services, though these provisions have yet to be fully defined or tested.

(9) Won't Local First hurt the poor in the Third World from whom we import?

If a large number of U.S. communities successfully move toward self-reliance, then yes, many imports from the global South - whether bananas, aluminum, or oil - would be reduced, to the detriment of the exporting poor countries. But a growing number of development economists are recognizing that the key to improving the plight of these countries is to end their export platform status and to help them become more self-reliant. Communities committed to helping the South might form partnerships like sister cities that facilitate the transfer of state-of-the-art technology and policy. An example is the city-state of Bremen in Germany, which for two decades has been helping its Third World partners become more self-reliant in energy by sharing technology that converts manure, garbage, and sewage into biogas.

(10) Is Local First a front for a radical agenda?

The vision of a world of sustainable communities does differ dramatically from a vision of globalization that tolerates enrichment of a few at the expense of hundreds of millions of workers and families and the destruction of the communities and ecosystems in which they live. But it's hard to imagine more traditional values than those underlying Local First - namely free markets, small business, fair play, and local empowerment.