Chamber chief says 'buy local'
By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer
Published on May 18, 2007
Cinda Jones would like to see Town Hall employees buy office supplies from A.J. Hastings instead of Staples and get coffee from local shops instead of Starbucks.
Jones, president of the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce, has gotten support for a buy-local campaign from Select Board members Hwei-Ling Greeney and Alisa Brewer. They are looking at steps town government can take to promote local businesses.
"We all want a vibrant downtown," said Greeney. "We talk about broadening our tax base, and the best way to do that is to strengthen the businesses you already have before you look for new ones."
Greeney considered a Town Meeting article requesting that purchasing agents give preferential treatment to local businesses, perhaps within a 10 percent price difference. Another option was asking the town manager and superintendent of schools to issue an administrative order favoring local purchasing.
A local Staples employer in Hadley said he was not authorized to comment. Officials from the parent company were unavailable for comment.
A spokesperson for Starbucks said the company has worked to contribute to the town's well-being since it opened in 1996.
The Starbucks representative, who declined to be identified, said that the Amherst store donates coffee to the Fire Department, gives books to an annual drive and helps raise money for after-school programs.
"We hired partners (employees) from the area and continue to take pride in being a good citizen locally and globally, seeking out and providing opportunities to give back to the community," the spokesperson wrote in an email message.
Legal review
Jones asked attorney Alan Seewald to look at the legality of favoring local purchasing. He found that Brockton sought an opinion on a similar ordinance.
"The inspector general advised the city that such an ordinance would be in direct conflict with the state competitive bid laws' requirement to award public contracts to the lowest qualified bidder," Seewald reported. "He further stated that local preferences are difficult to administer and would likely lead to allegations of illegal favoritism."
But the town can insist that all public purchasers investigate their options, and if prices are equal or better, buy from locally owned stores, Jones said. She is working with Hastings to come up with a chart comparing prices of their office supplies to those at Staples, she said.
"We are not asking that tax dollars be squandered, we're asking that we're given a fair chance at town contracts," Jones said.
In some cases, chain stores are able to quote lower prices by selling lower-quality goods, she said. Price comparisons should be made only on similar products, Jones said.
When residents patronize a chain restaurant, their money leaves the community and will not come back, she said.
"Every time you spend money at the Pub on lunch, that has a ripple effect," Jones said. "The Pub hires local accountants and lawyers, pays for brochures at print shops, pays employees who shop at local stores, buys food locally, even gets cups and napkins locally."
Young people often get their first jobs at local businesses, and parents ask shopkeepers and restaurateurs for money to support local sports teams, Greeney said.
"We want to give back what we take from these merchants," she said.
