When you shop in Lancaster you help community-centric businesses survive and thrive. Locally-oriented businesses are active in their community; support local causes and provide you with goods and services you can’t easily find elsewhere. The money you spend at local businesses is reinvested in the City through the paychecks local businesses write and the purchases those businesses make with other local merchants. This helps spread prosperity throughout the community. This “multiplier effect” means that every dollar you spend locally creates much more than a dollars worth of value as it circulates through the community. Dollars spent with online merchants outside of Lancaster or out-of-town businesses escape Lancaster and benefit other areas, rather than you and your neighbors. So seek out Lancaster businesses that serve your needs and support them like they support you.

Buying locally is a choice that can help create a healthier planet for all of us. By shopping closer to home and choosing local goods and services you can reduce your “carbon footprint” and the adverse impact such pollution have on all of us. According to some sources, replacing imported goods with locally grown, farmer’s market products can cut the amount of energy used in the process by 75% and reduce greenhouse gases just as much. Products that travel long distances also require added packaging to survive the journey intact. When you purchase locally produced products, much of that packaging can be eliminated, reducing what needs to be hauled off to the landfill. Look for such low-impact products and buy them when you can.
 

In 2008, over one third of Lancaster’s general fund came from local sales taxes, $19 million in total. That money went to support public safety efforts, park programs, street maintenance and all the things that go into supporting a community of 145,000. When you shop locally, you keep sales tax revenues within the City, supporting the services you use every day. If you buy products online or elsewhere, any sales tax you pay does not benefit local activities. It pays for someone else’s services. So shop locally whenever possible and help defray the cost of city services.