Unchaining America on November 19

AMIBA Invites All Independent Retailers and Business Alliances to Participate

On November 19, the last Saturday before Thanksgiving, the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) is sponsoring the second annual celebration of America Unchained. For the day, consumers in communities around the country will be asked to shop only at locally owned businesses to maximize the impact of their dollars and potentially inject millions more into the local economy. Jennifer Rockne, AMIBA director, told BTW that she hopes consumers' experience on November 19 will have a carry-over effect and "influence shopping habits, getting more people to shop locally for the holidays."

A key focus of the America Unchained event is the findings of Civic Economics' Andersonville Study and "Economic Impact Analysis -- A Case Study: Local Merchants vs. Chain Retailers", both of which clearly illustrate that local retailers return more economic value to the community than do chain retailers.

New this year, Rockne reported, AMIBA has created an online database to help Unchained participants better manage their promotions and to provide media with easy access to a list of participants. "We're trying to make it as easy as possible," she said. "This campaign is about media and public education."

The database provides a list of stores, businesses, and alliances that are participating in the promotion, as well as a link to a form where interested businesses or organizations can sign up to participate.

In addition, when retailers or organizations sign up online, they are provided with a plethora of marketing materials -- such as buttons, bag stuffers, posters, logos, participant information, a list of talking points (which includes data from the Civic Economics studies), and local press releases -- to make it easier to promote the day in their communities. Rockne stressed that a business or alliance does not need to be an AMIBA member to join -- any group or a business owner interested in participating in the promotion should navigate to http://www.amiba.net/Unchained.html and click "Sign me up!"

Rockne noted that one very effective promotion is for participants to come up with last year's sales figures for their communities for the Saturday before Thanksgiving (Saturday, November 20, 2004) and then determine how much money would have been injected into the local community if consumers had only shopped at local businesses for the day. These figures can be obtained from the state, county, or city departments of revenue, the city itself, or even the Chamber of Commerce. The AMIBA database also provides participants with advice on how to calculate the figures.

Rockne added that the Unchained event should attract local press coverage, because "it's a little on the edgy side.... We're challenging people's ideas and asking them to unchain themselves for one day and showing them what their community stands to gain." -- David Grogan