The 10-percent shift

Revolutionizing the way you shop

By CARA BAYLES

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If you're looking to be the savior of the American economy, the key might not be in how much you buy, but where you buy it.

That's the philosophy behind the 10-percent shift, a movement supported by nearly 20 local business networks across New England hoping to get conscientious consumers to shift their buying power to independent, locally owned enterprises with their new website, 10percentshift.org. The site, scheduled to launch this week, calculates your annual expenses and breaks down your budget into categories like food, housing and transportation costs (and subcategories like groceries, restaurants and alcohol). You can adjust the calculations to get a more accurate picture of your spending and how much is already done locally, and the site will determine where you can shift your purchases to local businesses.

"The user gets an output and sees the top 10 ways to go local," says Joe Grafton, executive director of Somerville Local First. "We're not going to identify specific stores, but the areas where they can buy local, and refer them to their local business association."

Laury Hammel, a founding member of Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (a national network of local business associations), owner of Longfellow Sports Club and co-founder of Cambridge Local First, contends that small changes quickly add up. "If you finance with a local bank, your interest shifts to your community," he says. "Another easy shift is local foods. In Cambridge, you can shop at the Harvest Coop instead of Whole Foods."

The meaning of "local" can seem to collapse on itself, especially since the 10-percent shift is a New England-wide movement, whereas business networks go town by town. Your first choice would be a purchase from an independently owned place in your neighborhood, then the next town over, then New England. It's a matter of access. "You can't get bananas and you can't get coffee that's locally produced," says Hammel. "But we'd like you to buy fair trade, and we'd like you to buy from 1369 if you live in Cambridge, and Diesel if you live in Somerville."

In addition to the local calculator, 10percentshift.org also asks that consumers sign a pledge to buy locally, and takes contributions, doling half your donation to your local business network and half to the website and future projects.

The concept of the shift, and the 10-percent figure, were inspired by a study out of Grand Rapids, Mich., which found a 10-percent shift in market share from chain stores to independent businesses would yield 1,600 new jobs and pump $137 million into the local economy of Grand Rapids. "It's an economic multiplier," says Hammel. "It's really a political concept, whenever we use money that stays in the community."

The numbers haven't been crunched for New England, but activists agree the change would be dramatic. "This program will create thousands of jobs and millions of dollars for our local economies without the use of one tax dollar," says Grafton.

Next month, New England will see a host of "March Toward the Shift" events marking the website's launch, with Boston's slotted for March 10th. You can catch all the details at the website.

[10percentshift.org. Contact Joe Grafton at somervillelocalfirst@gmail.com]