Promoting local business is as simple as having other company’s business cards or brochures posted on a board in your store. In an effort to promote the Oakbrook Area, we are distributing decals that say “Check us out at www.Oakbrook.sc,” in hopes that local shoppers will visit the site to find local restaurants, clothing, specials, coupons and more. We are doing our part, so please join us, and promote your local merchants, and everyone will benefit!
1. Buy Local -- Support yourself and the Oakbrook Community. Many studies have revealed when you buy from an independent, locally owned business in the Summerville area, rather than a nationally owned businesses, considerably more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses. Oakbrook businesses continue to strengthen the economic base of the Summerville community. These include case studies showing that Summerville owned businesses generate a premium in enhanced economic impact to the community and our tax base.
2.Support Oakbrook Area Community Groups: Non-profit organizations receive an average 250% more support from smaller Summerville area business owners than they do from large companies.
3. Keep the Oakbrook Area Unique: Where we shop, where we eat and have fun -- all of it makes our Oakbrook community home. Our one-of-a-kind Oakbrook businesses are an integral part of the distinctive character of Summerville. Summerville tourism businesses also benefit. “When people go on vacation they generally seek out destinations that offer them the sense of being someplace, not just anyplace.” ~ Richard Moe, President, National Historic Preservation Trust.
4. Reduce Environmental Impact: Locally owned businesses in Oakbrook Area can make more local purchases requiring less transportation. This generally means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution.
5. Create Additional Jobs: Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally and in Oakbrook area community, provide the most jobs to local residents.
6. Receive Better Service: Oakbrook businesses often hire people with a better understanding of the products and services they offer, and take more time to get to know customers.
7.Invest in the Oakbrook Community: Local Oakbrook businesses are owned by people who live in this community, and they are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the community’s future.
8. Put your Taxes to Good Use: Oakbrook businesses require a relatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering Oakbrook.
9. Buy What you Want, Not What Big Advertising Budgets Want you to Buy: A South Carolina marketplace comprised of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term. A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products and services based not on a national sales plan but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, promises a much broader range of product choices.
10. Promote Local Prosperity: An escalating body of economic research shows that in an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.