Owen Sound: A Four-Year City Business Plan

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Local Business and Economic Independence

Chapter 23Shop Local and Local Economic Independence

6,548 words · Mike Seiler · Owen Sound, Ontario

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A local economy becomes stronger when money earned in the community has more opportunities to circulate through the community before leaving it.

That does not mean residents should be told where they must shop.

It does not mean every imported product is bad.

It does not mean a local business deserves a customer's money simply because it is local.

Businesses still need to earn the customer.

The municipal opportunity is simpler:

Make local businesses easier to find, easier to buy from and easier to work together.

My original plan proposes four connected ideas:

These concepts can become much more than a marketing campaign.

Together, they can form the beginning of a practical local economic system.

But several parts need to be tested carefully.

Payment fees need to be measured using current merchant statements.

Any reward program needs an actual funding source.

Delivery cannot unfairly compete with existing couriers.

A purchasing co-operative must belong to its members rather than becoming a municipal retail business.

And none of these programs should collect unnecessary information about what residents buy.

The principle is:

Keep more value local without telling people how they must spend their own money.

23.1Local Does Not Automatically Mean Better

A local business should compete on:

Municipal government should not tell residents:

Buy this because it is local even if it is poor value.

The better message is:

Before you send the purchase somewhere else, see whether somebody here can earn your business.

The Shop Local system should make that comparison easier.

23.2The Local Opportunity Problem

Residents may buy elsewhere because:

Those are very different problems.

The City's job should be to understand which barriers can reasonably be reduced.

23.3Local Economic Independence

Economic independence does not mean economic isolation.

Owen Sound will continue purchasing goods and services from:

A modern economy depends upon trade.

The goal is resilience.

Where a useful product or service can reasonably be provided:

  1. in Owen Sound;
  2. in Grey Bruce;
  3. elsewhere in Ontario;
  4. elsewhere in Canada;

residents and businesses should be able to discover those options easily.

The final choice remains theirs.

23.4The Local Spending Ladder

A practical local purchasing hierarchy can be used as an information tool.

First

Can an Owen Sound business supply it?

Second

Can a Grey Bruce business supply it?

Third

Can an Ontario or Canadian business supply it competitively?

Fourth

If not, buy from wherever provides the required value.

This should never become a moral test applied to individual household purchases.

It is a way of increasing awareness.

23.5Shop Local Interac

The first proposal is extremely simple.

Help businesses and customers understand the actual cost of payment methods.

Interac says its debit system generally uses low, often flat transaction charges rather than charges tied directly to the purchase amount, although the merchant's actual cost depends upon its payment processor and package.

Canada's payment-card Code of Conduct is specifically intended to improve merchant pricing transparency, flexibility and choice regarding card acceptance.

That creates an opportunity for education.

Not coercion.

23.6Update the Original Two Per Cent Claim

The original initiative says that credit-card fees take roughly two per cent of a sale while debit costs cents.

That sentence should not appear in the final business plan as a universal current fact.

Payment-processing costs vary by:

The federal government also negotiated reduced interchange rates for qualifying small businesses that came into effect on October 19, 2024. The federal government said the changes reduced interchange rates by up to 27 per cent for many qualifying small businesses.

The better promise is:

We will use current local merchant statements to show the real difference.

Every number in the final campaign should carry a source.

23.7The Merchant Payment Audit

Invite local businesses to participate voluntarily in an anonymous payment-cost review.

A participating merchant could provide:

Aggregate the results.

Do not publish individual contracts or commercially sensitive pricing without consent.

The Question

What does payment choice actually cost an Owen Sound business today?

Then build the campaign from real local evidence.

23.8Show the Cost Per $100

Once reliable local information exists, explain the issue in an understandable way.

For example:

If a customer spends $100 by this method, the participating merchant typically retains approximately: $___ after payment processing.

The exact figure should come from current evidence.

The campaign should not exaggerate savings to make the program sound better.

23.9Merchant Choice

The City should not dictate which payment methods a private business must accept unless a lawful municipal requirement actually applies.

Canada's payment-card Code of Conduct is intended in part to give merchants greater choice concerning payment options and clear information about costs.

The local campaign should therefore say:

Ask your merchant which payment method they prefer.

That respects both:

23.10Customer Choice

Some customers may prefer:

Credit cards may provide consumers with:

The City should not shame residents for choosing them.

The campaign is education.

Not a payment mandate.

23.11Debit First, Not Debit Only

The public message should be:

When it works for you and your merchant, consider debit.

Not:

Stop using credit cards.

That distinction matters.

The first version invites participation.

The second attempts to control private behaviour.

23.12City Counters Should Know Their Own Costs

Before asking residents to think about merchant payment costs, the City should examine its own.

For each significant municipal payment channel, determine the actual cost of:

Then ask:

Are we making the lowest-cost practical payment methods easy to use?

Do not assume digital automatically means cheaper.

Measure the complete cost.

23.13City Payment Options Must Remain Accessible

Municipal payment policy must consider residents who:

Efficiency should not create a payment system that excludes people.

Multiple reasonable payment paths may remain necessary.

23.14Shop Local Interac Branding

Participating businesses could display a simple voluntary message:

Want to help us keep more of this sale? Ask which payment method costs us least.

That is more accurate than a universal claim.

A restaurant may have one arrangement.

A retailer may have another.

Let the merchant explain.

23.15No Paid Participation

A business should not need to pay the City to join a basic Shop Local campaign.

Basic participation should be open under clear eligibility rules.

The purpose is broad local participation.

Not municipal advertising revenue.

23.16The Owen Sound Penny

The second initiative is the Owen Sound Penny.

The original concept is:

Pay by debit at one participating local business and receive a reward worth one dollar at a different participating local business.

The important phrase in the existing plan is:

A reward, not a currency.

That distinction should remain.

Canadian dollars remain the monetary unit for Canadian transactions under the Currency Act.

Any Owen Sound Penny program should therefore be designed and legally reviewed as a promotional or loyalty reward, not presented as alternative legal tender.

23.17The Economic Assumption Needs Correction

There is one important correction required from the original concept.

The original proposal suggests the Penny could be funded from card-processing fees that remained with the merchant because the customer used debit.

Those savings do not automatically create a separate pool of money.

If a merchant saves money on a transaction, that saving remains with the merchant unless the merchant voluntarily contributes some amount into the reward system.

Therefore:

The Owen Sound Penny requires an explicit funding model.

It cannot be funded by assumed savings that nobody actually contributed.

23.18Possible Penny Funding

Potential funding sources could include:

Any municipal contribution should identify:

The program should eventually have a sustainable operating model if it continues.

23.19Merchant-Funded Example

One possible model:

A participating merchant voluntarily contributes a small defined amount for qualifying transactions.

That money enters the community reward pool.

The customer receives a reward redeemable at another participating business.

The exact amount would need to be tested.

Important

The merchant contribution should never be described as:

free money created by using debit.

It is a voluntary allocation of some of the merchant's savings or marketing budget.

Transparency matters.

23.20Sponsor-Funded Launch

Another possibility is a temporary launch funded by:

For example, a sponsor might fund the first 25,000 reward dollars.

That could test whether the program changes customer behaviour before merchants are asked to fund it permanently.

Sunset

When the sponsorship ends:

Do not automatically transfer the cost to municipal taxpayers.

23.21Why the Reward Goes Somewhere Else

The key design feature is that the reward should encourage discovery.

If I earn a reward at Business A and immediately redeem it at Business A, the program behaves mostly like a discount.

If I earn it at Business A and redeem it at:

a different participating local business,

the reward creates a new customer connection.

That is the point.

23.22Random Discovery

The program could make the next business:

Each approach creates different effects.

Random

Strong discovery but less consumer control.

Category Choice

Some control while encouraging exploration.

Full Choice

Simplest for the customer but may concentrate redemptions in already popular businesses.

Test before deciding.

23.23No Business Should Be Forced to Discount

Participation must be voluntary.

A business decides:

The City should not order a private merchant to fund someone else's marketing.

23.24Equal Basic Rules

A small independent store should not receive worse program treatment than a larger participating local business.

Publish:

One rulebook.

No backroom arrangements.

23.25What Counts as Local?

The program needs an objective definition.

Possible criteria could consider:

The final definition requires consultation.

Avoid False Purity Tests

A locally owned business may sell products manufactured elsewhere.

A national franchise may employ local people and be locally owned by a franchisee.

A Canadian chain may have substantial local employment.

The system should not pretend those distinctions are simple.

If different categories are created, label them clearly.

23.26Local Independent Versus Local Location

The public directory could identify factual categories rather than deciding which deserves more respect.

Examples:

Locally owned independent

Locally owned franchise

Canadian chain location

Other local employer

Residents can decide what matters to them.

Information is better than moral judgement.

23.27The Penny Should Never Expire Quietly

If rewards expire, the rule must be visible.

Customers should know:

Consumer trust disappears quickly when reward rules are hidden.

23.28Keep the Penny Simple

A one-dollar reward is understandable.

A complicated points formula is not.

Avoid:

The program should be understandable to a child.

Shop here. Earn this. Use it there.

23.29Paper Option

The Owen Sound Penny should not require a smartphone.

A physical option could include:

Fraud controls would need to be designed accordingly.

Digital convenience should not become digital exclusion.

23.30Privacy by Design

Loyalty programs can collect detailed purchase histories.

A March 2026 investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada concerning a major Canadian loyalty program highlighted the importance of retention limits and genuinely de-identifying information that is no longer required.

The Owen Sound Penny should therefore be designed around the opposite instinct:

Collect as little as possible.

The program does not need to know everything someone buys.

23.31Minimum Penny Data

A simple reward system may need to know:

It does not necessarily need:

The Rule

Reward the transaction. Do not profile the person.

23.32No Selling Penny Data

Resident purchasing data should never become the hidden business model.

No sale of individual:

to advertisers.

If aggregate information is reported, it should be structured to protect individual privacy.

23.33No Political Use

Absolutely no Penny, Shop Local or municipal commerce data should be used for:

The campaign and municipal firewall established throughout this plan applies fully.

A resident should never wonder whether buying lunch affected what political message they receive later.

23.34The Penny Business Case

Before a full launch, answer:

Cost

What does administration cost?

Funding

Who pays for rewards?

Fraud

What controls are needed?

Participation

How many businesses will join?

Redemption

How often are rewards used?

Discovery

Do customers actually visit businesses they had not previously used?

Incremental Spending

Does the reward generate additional local purchases or merely subsidize purchases that would have happened anyway?

Privacy

What information is truly necessary?

If the answers are weak, do not scale.

23.35Pilot the Penny

Start small.

Possible pilot:

At the end:

Rewards issued

Rewards redeemed

Different businesses visited

Average additional purchase where voluntarily reported

Merchant satisfaction

Customer satisfaction

Administrative cost

Fraud or dispute issues

Then decide whether the concept deserves expansion.

23.36A Penny Is Not Success by Itself

Issuing 50,000 reward dollars sounds impressive.

It tells us almost nothing.

The meaningful questions are:

Measure the outcome.

Not the number of tokens created.

23.37Local Gift Program

The Penny could eventually connect with a broader local gift system.

Residents or employers could purchase a local gift balance redeemable among participating businesses.

Possible uses:

This would require proper:

Do not build it casually.

23.38Employer Participation

Local employers could choose to provide employees with:

This could direct additional discretionary spending into the local economy.

The City can make the program available.

It should not pressure private employers to participate.

23.39Shop Local Delivery

The third original initiative is local delivery.

The proposal suggests exploring whether existing municipal trips across the City could, in some circumstances, carry local deliveries with little additional route distance, while preserving union agreement and giving existing local couriers priority beyond those routes.

This idea is worth studying.

It should not begin with the assumption that municipal vehicles can simply become delivery vans.

There are significant questions involving:

The first step is a feasibility study.

23.40Local Couriers First

Before involving City vehicles, ask:

Can an existing local courier solve the problem?

If the answer is yes, support the market connection.

A local delivery program should ideally create more business for local:

rather than using tax-funded vehicles to displace them.

23.41Shared Local Delivery Network

A stronger model may be a common private delivery network.

A customer orders from:

and one local delivery route consolidates the trip.

Participating businesses share logistics.

The City may help:

The operating business should ideally remain private, co-operative or community based.

23.42Delivery Consolidation

The major economic opportunity may not be City delivery.

It may be consolidation.

Ten local businesses each sending one vehicle across town is inefficient.

One shared route may be able to serve several businesses.

The business case should compare:

Choose the model with the strongest combination of:

23.43Same-Day Local

Large online retailers have trained customers to expect convenience.

Local businesses need to compete with that expectation.

The Shop Local system should aim toward:

Buy local today. Receive local today where practical.

That does not mean every item needs same-day delivery.

It means local convenience should improve.

23.44One Checkout Is Not Required on Day One

Do not begin by building a giant municipal e-commerce platform.

That creates:

The first version can be simpler.

A common local directory can direct customers to each business's existing:

Solve discovery first.

Then determine whether shared checkout is actually necessary.

23.45Shop Local Directory

Create a public, neutral directory of participating businesses.

Possible fields:

Free Basic Listing

No paid ranking.

No paid placement disguised as public search.

Residents should receive useful local information rather than municipal advertising.

23.46Real-Time Inventory Is a Separate Problem

A resident may ask:

Does anyone in Owen Sound have this item today?

That is enormously useful.

It is also technically difficult.

Different businesses use different inventory systems.

Do not promise universal live inventory before proving integration is practical.

Early Version

Allow businesses to identify:

Future Version

Businesses that choose to integrate inventory can do so under appropriate technical standards.

Build gradually.

The long-term goal should be simple:

A resident searches for:

size 10 winter boots

and can quickly determine whether a participating local business carries them before ordering elsewhere.

That is useful economic infrastructure.

The system should not manipulate the answer based on:

Search should serve the resident.

23.48Business-Owned Product Data

A business should control its own:

The public platform should establish formatting and accuracy standards.

It should not rewrite a merchant's products to favour another seller.

23.49Community Pooling

The fourth original initiative is Community Pooling.

The proposal describes three stages:

  1. combine community purchasing of common goods;
  2. allow local merchants to supply everything they reasonably can first;
  3. develop a proper purchasing co-operative if the model proves itself.

This concept has significant potential.

It also requires careful separation from City Hall.

The municipality should not become Owen Sound's grocery wholesaler.

23.50What Community Pooling Is Trying to Solve

Large retailers often benefit from scale.

They can purchase:

A single household cannot negotiate that way.

A small independent merchant may also have less purchasing power than a national chain.

Community Pooling asks:

Can local demand be organized in a way that captures some benefits of scale without requiring every purchase to move through a multinational retailer?

That is the experiment.

23.51Phase One: Measure Demand

Do not begin by ordering a transport truck full of anything.

Begin with voluntary demand discovery.

Residents and businesses could indicate interest in common categories such as:

Do not collect unnecessary detailed household profiles.

The purpose is to understand aggregate demand.

23.52Ask Local Merchants First

Before pooling a direct purchase from an outside supplier, present aggregate demand to interested local merchants.

For example:

The community has identified potential demand for approximately 500 units of this product. Can a local merchant competitively supply it?

The merchant receives first opportunity to develop an offer.

The City does not set the merchant's price.

The customer still decides whether the offer is attractive.

23.53Why This Matters

A local merchant may be unable to offer a strong price on ten units.

They may be able to negotiate differently on:

Demand visibility can create purchasing power for the merchant as well as the customer.

That is a more interesting local-economy strategy than simply bypassing the merchant.

23.54Local First Does Not Mean Local Regardless of Price

A local merchant offering a product at twice the reasonable market price should not automatically receive the pooled order.

The process should compare:

Then participants decide.

The objective is meaningful local opportunity.

Not compulsory local purchasing.

23.55Phase Two: Canadian Supplier Pooling

Where the product cannot reasonably be supplied locally, the group could explore:

suppliers.

The pooled demand may enable:

The final economics must include:

Headline wholesale price is not the complete cost.

23.56The True Landed Cost

Every pooled purchase should calculate:

Product

Freight

Storage

Handling

Payment

Administration

Loss or damage allowance

Tax

Delivery or pickup

Only then compare it with ordinary retail.

A program that claims a 20 per cent saving before including freight and administration is not measuring honestly.

23.57Phase Three: Member-Owned Co-operative

If Community Pooling develops sustained demand, the logical long-term structure may be an independent purchasing co-operative.

Canadian co-operatives are member-owned businesses designed to meet member needs, generally using democratic decision-making structures. Federal guidance also recognizes patronage returns as one way co-operative surpluses may be returned to members or reinvested.

That makes a co-operative conceptually well suited to a community purchasing model.

But:

The co-operative should belong to its members.

Not the Mayor.

Not City Council.

Not a campaign organization.

23.58City as Convener, Not Grocer

The municipality may initially help:

Once an operating commercial organization exists, it should become independent.

City Hall should not:

That is not the municipal purpose.

23.59Co-operative Feasibility Study

Before incorporation, answer:

Members

Who actually wants to join?

Purchases

What would they buy together?

Volume

Is demand large enough?

Capital

What start-up money is required?

Governance

Who makes decisions?

Staffing

Who performs the work?

Storage

Where are goods kept?

Liability

Who carries risk?

Competition

Does the model strengthen or undermine existing local merchants?

Exit

What happens if the co-operative fails?

ISED's current guidance recommends evaluating whether the co-operative model actually fits the need before proceeding to incorporation.

That is exactly the right discipline here.

23.60Community Pooling Should Strengthen Merchants

The preferred model should make local merchants part of the system.

Potential roles include:

A local hardware store may already know more about purchasing tools than a new co-operative ever will.

Use existing expertise.

23.61Business Pooling

Community Pooling may be even more immediately useful for businesses.

Small local businesses all purchase:

Pooling some common inputs may create better purchasing power.

Business Buying Group

A voluntary local business buying group could test:

Businesses make the decisions.

City Hall can help connect them.

23.62Local Business-to-Business Spending

Shop Local should not focus only on consumer purchases.

Businesses spend substantial money with other businesses.

Encourage local companies to ask:

Can someone here provide this service?

Possible categories include:

A public directory can help businesses discover one another.

23.63Supply-Chain Map

Develop a voluntary high-level map of local business capability.

Not secret purchasing information.

Categories such as:

A manufacturer looking for a supplier should be able to see capabilities nearby.

This supports resilience as well as local spending.

23.64Import Replacement

Economic development often focuses on exporting more.

There is another opportunity:

Identify what the community repeatedly buys elsewhere that somebody here could reasonably produce.

This can become a source of:

Do not force local production.

Make the market gap visible.

23.65The Local Gap List

Using voluntary purchasing information and business consultation, identify categories where demand exists but local supply is weak.

Examples might eventually include:

Publish the opportunity.

A local entrepreneur may decide to fill it.

That connects Shop Local directly to the Start-Up Desk.

23.66Shop Local Is Also Business Recruitment

Instead of telling residents:

You should buy local,

the City should also ask:

Why can't they buy this locally?

If hundreds of residents consistently leave Owen Sound for the same product or service, that may be a recruitment opportunity.

The economic-development team can use that gap to approach:

23.67Local Gift Giving

Businesses and organizations often purchase:

A local gift program could make it easier to direct those purchases to participating businesses.

A local employer may want to give an employee:

$100 to spend among Owen Sound businesses.

Build an easy legal mechanism if demand supports it.

23.68City Gifts and Recognition

Where the City purchases appropriate gifts or awards, procurement rules still apply.

The City can consider local and Canadian suppliers within the procurement framework already established.

Do not bypass procurement because an item carries a Shop Local logo.

Public purchasing requires public rules.

23.69Tourism and Shop Local

Visitors are another local-spending opportunity.

The River Spine and Owen Sound Outside systems can help visitors discover:

A visitor should be able to ask:

What can I buy here that actually connects me to Owen Sound?

Local makers and businesses should be easy to discover.

23.70Made in Owen Sound

Create a voluntary designation for products genuinely made or substantially created in Owen Sound under clearly defined criteria.

This could highlight:

Do not allow vague claims.

Define what qualifies.

Made Here

is different from:

Sold Here.

Both have value.

Label them honestly.

23.71Made in Grey Bruce

Some products are regional rather than municipal.

The public system should celebrate that too.

A strong Owen Sound economy benefits when surrounding communities are strong.

People from the region:

Local economic independence should not create a wall at the City boundary.

23.72Made in Canada

Where a local option does not exist, residents may still want to identify Canadian alternatives.

The Shop Local information system can provide voluntary Canadian-source discovery.

Accuracy matters.

Do not label something Canadian merely because the retailer is Canadian.

Product origin can be complicated.

Where origin is supplied by the manufacturer or merchant, identify the source of that information.

23.73Canadian Supply Resilience

Canadian sourcing can also matter when global supply chains are disrupted.

Businesses should be encouraged to understand whether critical inputs have:

alternatives.

The City does not need a database of every private supply contract.

Economic-development organizations can help businesses think about supply resilience.

23.74Shop Local During Emergencies

The Community Skills and Business Capability directories developed earlier can connect with local economic resilience.

During disruption, local businesses may provide:

Emergency procurement remains governed by appropriate rules.

The value is knowing local capacity exists before it is urgently needed.

23.75Shop Local and Downtown

Downtown should be one of the strongest beneficiaries of the program.

A visitor to Civic Square should be able to discover surrounding businesses.

A person attending the 2nd Avenue pilot should be able to see:

The public system should help businesses gain exposure without turning every public surface into advertising.

23.76Shop Local and Neighbourhoods

Local commerce is not only downtown commerce.

Neighbourhood businesses may include:

The directory should represent eligible businesses throughout Owen Sound.

Downtown receives dedicated revitalization work because it has a special civic role.

That should not make other local businesses invisible.

23.77Shop Local and Farmers' Market

The farmers' market provides a natural link between:

Shop Local tools can help market customers continue relationships beyond market hours.

Where vendors choose to participate, the directory could identify:

The market becomes an entry point, not the only point of contact.

23.78Local Food

Food has one of the clearest connections between:

The City should support discovery.

It should not attempt to manage food supply chains better than the businesses already operating them.

The economic-development question is:

Where is a useful connection missing?

23.79Community Buying Events

Community Pooling could initially be tested through occasional clearly defined buying events.

For example:

Each test should have:

Do not build permanent infrastructure around an experiment.

23.80No Forced Membership

Residents should never need to join:

to receive ordinary municipal services.

These are voluntary economic tools.

Not a civic loyalty program.

23.81No Social Score

The City should never track whether a person is:

based on shopping behaviour.

No points for citizenship.

No rewards for political participation.

No penalties for shopping elsewhere.

The individual remains free.

23.82No Behavioural Advertising

A public Shop Local system does not need to say:

You bought boots last week, therefore here are twelve advertisements for socks.

Do not recreate the surveillance economy in municipal clothing.

Search should respond to what the resident asks for.

The resident should not become the product.

23.83No Advertising on the Basic Community Directory

Basic business discovery should remain:

If private organizations want to operate advertising systems, they may do so.

The City's basic information infrastructure should not require businesses to buy prominence.

That principle will become particularly important in the later map.ca governance section.

23.84Independent Governance for Private Platforms

If any privately developed platform associated with a candidate, Mayor, councillor, employee or related business is proposed for municipal use, it must pass the full conflict-of-interest firewall established in this plan.

That includes:

Shop Local is a public objective.

It should not become a private windfall for whoever happens to hold office.

23.85Existing Private Platforms Should Be Welcome

The City should not attempt to replace:

Businesses can use whatever platforms they choose.

The municipal objective is to provide a simple public discovery layer and help close gaps.

Competition and choice remain valuable.

23.86Cost of Convenience

When evaluating Shop Local programs, compare the value of convenience.

A resident may pay:

but receive:

Another product may clearly be less expensive elsewhere.

The City should provide information.

It should not decide the trade-off for the consumer.

23.87Local Businesses Must Still Improve

Shop Local cannot become protection from competition.

If residents repeatedly say:

local businesses should hear that.

Economic independence requires competitive local businesses.

Not merely patriotic customers.

23.88Business Digital Basics

The Start-Up Desk and partners could help businesses improve basic discoverability.

A surprising amount of purchasing can be lost when a customer cannot determine:

Possible workshops:

The City can connect businesses to expertise rather than becoming their marketing agency.

23.89Telephone Still Matters

Not every customer wants to order online.

A Shop Local directory should display a telephone number where the business provides one.

Digital modernization should not erase ordinary human service.

Sometimes the fastest local search is still:

Call and ask.

23.90Shop Local Scorecard

The annual scorecard should measure the system rather than claim ownership of private success.

Businesses

Payment

Penny

Delivery

Community Pooling

Directory

Economic Development

23.91Measure Savings Honestly

If Community Pooling claims to save residents money, publish:

Normal comparable price

Pooled price

Shipping

Handling

Administration

Tax

Final saving

If Shop Local Interac claims to save a business money, use:

No imaginary savings.

23.92Measure Local Circulation Carefully

It is tempting to claim:

Every local dollar circulates seven times.

or another memorable multiplier.

Do not use such numbers without a credible source and applicable methodology.

Local economic effects are complex.

The public case does not need a slogan pretending economics is simpler than it is.

A stronger statement is:

A dollar paid to a local business creates another opportunity for that business to purchase, hire and invest locally. The amount varies.

Then measure what we can.

23.93The First 100 Days

The first 100 days should test the economics before building technology.

1. Meet Local Merchants

Ask:

2. Payment Cost Study

Invite voluntary anonymous merchant participation.

3. Update the Debit Claim

Replace the rough campaign number with current evidence.

4. Build the Free Directory

Start with:

5. Study the Penny

Establish:

6. Delivery Feasibility

Meet local couriers first.

7. Identify Purchasing Opportunities

Ask residents and businesses what products might benefit from pooling.

8. Ask Local Merchants

Can they fill that demand?

9. Identify Local Supply Gaps

Connect those gaps to the Start-Up Desk.

10. Publish the Economics

Before asking anyone to participate, show how each proposed system would actually work.

23.94Year One

During Year One:

The objective is evidence.

Not maximum membership.

23.95Year Two

During Year Two:

23.96Year Three

During Year Three:

23.97Year Four

By Year Four, publish a complete economic review.

Ask:

Did payment education save participating merchants money?

Did customers participate voluntarily?

Did the Penny actually send customers into different businesses?

Who funded it?

What did it cost per redeemed reward?

Did delivery become easier?

Did local couriers benefit?

Did pooled purchasing produce real net savings?

Did local merchants fill part of that demand?

Did Canadian suppliers gain orders?

Was a co-operative justified?

Did any program become dependent on property-tax subsidy?

Was resident purchasing information protected?

Did the City stay out of businesses that the private and co-operative sectors could operate better?

Publish the answers.

23.98What We Should Stop

By the end of the term, some ideas may not survive.

Perhaps:

Then stop.

The objective is not to keep campaign ideas alive.

The objective is to strengthen the local economy.

An experiment that proves an idea unnecessary has still produced useful information.

23.99What This Is Not

Shop Local is not:

It is a collection of practical tools that make local economic choice easier.

The Shop Local Commitment

The strongest local economy is not one in which government commands residents to spend locally.

It is one in which local businesses make it easy enough, useful enough and competitive enough that residents want to.

The commitment is:

Show merchants the real cost of payment options using current evidence.

Encourage lower-cost payments without taking choice away from customers or businesses.

Update old fee assumptions when the evidence changes.

Test the Owen Sound Penny as a reward, never as a currency.

Give the Penny a real funding source before promising it.

Use rewards to introduce customers to different local businesses.

Collect the minimum information necessary.

Never sell resident purchasing data.

Never use shopping data politically.

Make local businesses easy to find.

Keep basic directory listings free and neutrally ranked.

Make local delivery easier without unfairly displacing local couriers.

Pool delivery where scale creates efficiency.

Test community purchasing before building a co-operative.

Give local merchants the first opportunity to compete for pooled demand.

Look to Canadian suppliers when local supply cannot fill the need.

Calculate the complete landed cost before claiming savings.

If a purchasing co-operative emerges, let the members own it.

Use City Hall as a convener, not a retailer.

Help businesses buy from one another.

Identify what Owen Sound keeps buying elsewhere and turn those gaps into business opportunities.

Celebrate products genuinely made here.

Strengthen Grey Bruce and Canadian supply relationships.

Keep the programs voluntary.

End the programs that do not produce measurable value.

Local economic independence does not mean closing Owen Sound off from the world.

It means becoming more capable within it.

Find it here first. Buy it here when it makes sense. Build here what is missing. Buy Canadian where it adds value. Keep choice with the person spending the money.

← Chapter 22: Starting and Growing a Business in Owen SoundChapter 24: The Enthusiast Economy →