Benefits of shopping local

Civic Economics compiled the results of nine of its local spending studies in 2012. Across them, independent businesses recirculated 48 percent of revenue in the local economy, compared with 13.6 percent for chain retailers, as graphed by the American Independent Business Alliance.

That 48 percent splits into profit and labor (25.2 percent), goods bought locally for resale (14.3 percent), goods and services bought locally for the business itself (5.7 percent) and charitable giving (3 percent). The numbers come from surveys independent businesses filled out about their own spending, and they shift with the mix of studies: AMIBA’s current summary of the retail studies puts the independent figure at 52.9 percent. They describe independent businesses in general rather than grocers, so treat the gap as a direction, not a grocery price tag.

That 14.3 percent "procurement for resale" slice is the part of the multiplier a shopper can see on the shelf. In a grocery store it would be the jams, sauces, eggs and flour bought from producers in the region.

USDA data points the same way from the farm side. Its 2022 Census of Agriculture counted $17.5 billion in food sold through direct marketing, and $14.2 billion of it went to retailers, institutions and intermediaries such as food hubs rather than straight to shoppers, ERS reported in 2024. Operations selling through those channels more than doubled from 2017 to 2022, to 60,332. Census tables do not split out independent grocers, so read it as "stores are a big outlet for local food," not as a count of independents.

The sponsorship banner at a Little League field is easy to wave off as anecdote. In the 2012 compilation it was a line item: 3 percent of independents’ revenue went to local charitable giving. Small, but it is counted inside the 48 percent, not added on top.

ERS found that remote rural counties averaged 2.1 independent grocery stores against 1.9 chain stores in 2015. In 576 counties, mostly rural, independents took at least half of all grocery sales. Those counties held 4 percent of the US population (ERS, 2018).

In the counties where about 4 percent of Americans live, then, independents do at least half the grocery business. Spending there keeps them open.

US food stores, warehouse clubs and supercenters sold $796 billion of food in 2022, and the 20 largest retailers accounted for $519 billion of it, or 65.2 percent (ERS).

Every independent that stays open is one more buyer for suppliers and one more price for shoppers to compare. That is a structural benefit, and it does not depend on any single store being cheaper.

The FTC’s March 2024 staff report on the pandemic grocery supply chain found that "smaller firms, especially smaller grocery retailers, disproportionately faced difficulties obtaining products." Suppliers sometimes favored big buyers that threatened fines for late deliveries, giving larger companies a competitive advantage over smaller retailers. It also found food and beverage retailer revenues ran more than 6 percent over total costs in 2021 and 7 percent in the first three quarters of 2023.

Shopping independent does not fix that imbalance. It keeps alive the smaller customers suppliers need.

This benefit has no study attached, and it should not pretend to. What it rests on is the definition: a store whose owner runs three stores at most, so the person who decides what goes on the shelf is rarely far away. Ask for a product, a supplier or a special order and you may be talking to the one who can say yes.

Shorter supply chains do cut transport, but transport is a minor part of food’s climate cost. Hannah Ritchie’s 2020 analysis for Our World in Data found transport accounts for less than 10 percent of emissions for most food products, and concluded you have a larger impact by focusing on what you eat than on whether it is local.

So count food miles as a small plus. For the climate, the cart matters more than the store’s address.