FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Jennifer Lachman, 415-487-2574
Tim Redmond, 415-487-2554

GUARDIAN CAMPAIGN: SPEND $100 LOCALLY ... AND YOU COULD WIN $500!

The San Francisco Bay Guardian, which for years has been promoting small business and sustainable economic programs, is urging its readers to spend $100 of their holiday money at locally owned, independent businesses - a move that would pump nearly $100 million into the city's recession-plagued economy.

The Guardian is one of the leaders in a national "shop-local" program organized with the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. In fact, we are conducting a SHOP LOCAL READERS CONTEST! Tell us in 500 words or less how you've spent holiday money in town and we'll enter you in a contest to win $500 worth of gift certificates at locally-owned merchants! See more details below.

According to data developed as part of that program, if every one of the Guardian's 593,444 readers spent $100 at locally owned businesses, the impact on the San Francisco economy would total $99.6 million. That's because money spent at local businesses tends to stay in the community and create more economic activity. (Visit the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies to view studies that support "shopping local first.")

The move is "simply part of our mission as a newspaper," Tim Redmond, executive editor of the Bay Guardian, said. "A sustainable community needs a sustainable economy, and that starts with locally owned independent businesses."

The project is particularly important this year, when many retailers fear a slow holiday season.

The Guardian is locally owned and operated, run by Bruce B. Brugmann and Jean Dibble, the husband-and-wife team that started the paper in 1966.

The paper has long reported on and advocated for the needs of local businesses. In 1985 and 1986, the Guardian commissioned a series of landmark economic studies showing that small, locally owned businesses create most of the new jobs in the city. The Guardian promoted the creation of a Small Business Commission and supported the creation of the new Small Business Assistance Center. And the paper does an annual small-business awards issue to honor innovative and progressive local merchants.

Our friends at the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau have compiled a nifty resource of local merchants offering discounts, specials, and more! Click on the image below for more info!