parents were small business owners both
sets of grandparents were small business
owners and so it runs in my blood and my
record store called Stinkweeds I opened
when I was 19 years old that store
routes me in the community in ways that
are hard for me to even explain but I
know my customers I know their lives I
know their stories I get involved I know
what their parents gave them last
holiday season I know the names of their
children suffice to say I’m a social
worker that’s cleverly disguised as a
record store owner but in that store
over the years I’ve noticed some changes
the hard one enthusiasm of landing that
first job the customer coming in very
excited to tell me has changed into
young people working very hard to get
through college going into debt and
graduating only to find out that there
are no jobs available I see parents work
their fingers to the bone only to find
out that their children who just
graduated from college won’t have an
opportunity to get a job in their field
there’s a big change happening in the
country and I’d like to talk to you
about how our personal spending habits
impacts the opportunities for the next
generation did you know that millenials
are the first generation in US history
who will actually acquire less wealth
than their parents now you may have some
ideas about why this is you may think
that it has something to do with
artificial intelligence or myriad
problems facing our young people today
but what if I told you that our everyday
spending habits impact the opportunities
for the next generation I don’t want you
to go out and support locally owned
businesses because they need you
I want you to support locally owned
businesses because I want your children
to have a job so I submit to all of you
that we’ve actually forgotten how the
economy works we’ve forgotten that we’re
the ones in the driver’s seat and the
choices that we make every day directly
impact the quality of life in our
community and the opportunities for the
next generation
we know that smart money should come
back to us but too often were out there
chasing that cheap price and I’m going
to show you how that cheap is costing us
a fortune so on the left side of the
screen you’re gonna see 15 Starbucks
logos and on the right hand side of your
screen you see 15 independent coffee
shops randomly selected from around the
community so you may not think much
about when you go out you buy your latte
but I’m going to talk to you about how
the economy works and how dollars move
through in a multiplier effect now the
first thing I’m going to do is shout out
Starbucks as the best corporate chain
out there they’re the best ones in
existence for two reasons number one
they’re not in the business of subsidies
you may not know what that means but a
lot of big corporations move into town
and they demand cash payment up front
called a subsidy Cabela’s store you may
be familiar with Cabela’s yes they
average thirty five million dollars per
store in subsidies that’s like cash free
infrastructure it’s a ten year tax
abatement that means you go in and buy a
tent or fishing tackle you pay your
sales taxes and they get to keep it for
ten years the one Cabela’s store in
Arizona got a 68 million dollar subsidy
okay back to Starbucks they don’t do
that they just show up and do business
good on them love that number two they
pay for the health care of their
employees a lot of big stores like
staples and others they bring 65 68
percent part-time employees with no
healthcare benefits to our state those
employees end up on the state healthcare
plan who’s paying for that we are so
suddenly we realize those cheap prices
are actually deferred billing right
we’re paying for that in a different way
so back to this slide we have these 15
Starbucks locations
how many accountants does Starbucks
employ here in Arizona because they do
business here what do you think none
zero right
how about graphic designers do they
employ any graphic designers here
website developers payroll service
providers you get my point it’s a long
list those are called secondary jobs and
it turns out they make the world go
round
okay now on the other side of the screen
15 independent coffee shops they support
15 independent graphic designers did
those logos 15 web site developers 15
payroll service providers or 15
accountants those are dollars moving
through the economy and then you could
look at the third time the dollar moves
to the economy when the janitorial
supply company keeps the offices clean
of the accounting firm in the accounting
firm is only here because the local
businesses hire them now I was giving
this talk to a conference of graphic
design firms just maybe a few months ago
and I had a woman sitting right up here
in the front row and she smacked herself
in the forehead really hard right at
this part of my talk I mean people could
hear it and we said we I stopped and I
said oh my gosh ma’am are you okay and
she said yeah she said I’m just really
mad at myself
she said I’m mad at myself because it
never occurred to me that Paula here
working at Starbucks
she’s working every day to essentially
build wealth for shareholders that she
may never meet now it’s great that she
has a job and she’s working her way
through college but that money is
leaving the state on the other side of
the screen you see Carlos and Carlos is
a local business owner and those dollars
are staying and moving through the
economy when he hires a graphic design
firm or a website developer a payroll
service provider and when those
companies go out and employ other people
in the community that’s how we all stay
employed that’s how we keep our
communities thriving now this woman that
smacked herself in the forehead she was
mad at herself because she had a graphic
design firm she said I used to have
eight employees and today I have five
and it looks like tomorrow I’m gonna
have four and it never occurred to me
and
right now that I’ve been spending all of
my money with companies that will never
hire me and she thought to herself I
have to get out there and actually meet
the business owners that actually might
need a graphic design firm so when we
think about this in the big picture we
think about this as the Starbucks
example let’s spread that out across the
country we could have 30,000 Starbucks
locations and they’re still only gonna
support one accounting firm and one
graphic design firm and that graphic
designer by the way has his feet on the
desk right about now because they ain’t
going to update that logo anytime soon
okay you get my point this money moves
out of our economy and a lot of people
think to themselves well that’s economy
of scale but it is not cheaper it is not
cheaper to buy a latte at a Starbucks
than it is a local business despite the
fact that Starbucks is a fantastic
company okay so what I see in the
country is that we’re dividing into two
camps we’re dividing in the camp that
prioritizes convenience versus the camp
that prioritizes relationships knowing
the farmer that grows your food
knowing the two sisters here that went
on and started their own coffee shop and
they get up every day passionately to
try to build a better community we know
that supporting locally owned businesses
keeps more dollars recirculating more
job opportunities for the next
generation but also they’re critically
important in building relationships and
in fact the knight Foundation issued an
enormous study that showed connection to
place is the single most leading
indicator in places that have prosperity
and then when people love their place
and they do business locally and they
build those relationships they’re also
more likely to vote they’re more likely
to volunteer they’re more likely to give
charitably so when you think about the
locally owned businesses I want you to
look at your own space
habits and think about how you could
shift just 10% of your spending from a
national to a local company now if you
look at your spending and you thought
while I’m spending about 10 percent
locally now I want you to get to 20
percent if you’re at 40 percent I want
you to get to 50 percent because of
everyone in a community the size of
Tucson shifted just 10 percent of their
spending it would create a hundred and
thirty million new dollars recirculating
through this community in one year it
would create 1,600 brand-new jobs for a
simple 10% shift it’s critically
important that we think about the
diverse ways that we can spend money
locally get a local haircut get a local
oil change go out and support a local
independent coffee shop if you want to
think big move your money to a local
community bank or credit union you can
be sure that that money is stayed in
this community and relocate and in
recirculated through loans out into the
small business sector so as a quick last
reminder the price of convenience is
jobs the price of convenience is quality
of life in our community it’s a hefty
price tag just this last holiday season
we Americans spent six hundred and
eighty billion dollars just imagine if
we had spent that like we wanted to create jobs thank you