Buy Local Campaigns worked this Christmas, says new study.

It’s easy to get cynical about “buy local” campaigns when you compare the traffic at Main Street shops with the parking lot at Wal-Mart.

Is Buy Local any more effective a slogan than Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No”?

A new survey just says yes. The study, put out by a coalition of business groups, shows that the little guys actually outperformed the big guys this Christmas season. And further, that Buy Local campaigns made a difference.

Holiday sales for independent retailers were up an average of 2.2% while  overall retail sales were down 0.3% in December and up 1.8% in November.

And those retailers in cities with Buy Local campaigns did even better. “Independent retailers in these cities reported an average increase in holiday sales of 3.0%, compared to 1.0% for those in cities without an active Buy Local initiative,” according to the study.

“This survey adds to the growing body of evidence that people are increasingly bypassing big business in favor of local entrepreneurs,” said Stacy Mitchell, senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “Amid the worst downturn in more than 60 years, independent businesses are managing to succeed by emphasizing their community roots and local ownership.”

Ethics vs Pocketbook

But this report has a troubling finding. It suggests that people bought local primarily for ethical reasons — because they want to help their community — rather than for price and quality of products and services or convenience of shopping.

Nearly 80% of those surveyed said public awareness of the value of choosing locally owned businesses had increased in the last year (16% said it had stayed the same).

A small movement can get going by do-gooders. And the Buy Local movement has made progress so far by largely appealing to civic pride.

But doesn’t it take real issues of self-interest for a movement to get big?

Won’t it take local retailers offering a better combination of price-quality-convenience to start to gain real traction over chains?

Boutiques, Not Hardware

As long as local retailers sell mostly home decor, women’s fashions, and other stuff you might want but don’t necessarily need, as they do in downtown Staunton, then there will be a need for others to provide food, appliances, hardware, and other staples. And today, that’s mostly done by chain retailers.

Of course, for local stores to start selling staples, there has to be a consumer market for the higher prices and smaller selection that local retailers would have to offer. Right now, with plenty of free parking at the mall and cheap gas to get there, there’s not much of a market for selling necessities downtown. So it’s a chicken-and-egg problem.

But once peak oil kicks in and energy prices begin to rise, then having stores nearby will become more important. That’s when buying local becomes a real pocketbook issue for shoppers.

(Full disclosure: I sit on the board of a group that regularly runs Buy Local campaigns, the Staunton Downtown Development Association. I’m sometimes skeptical, but I want them to succeed.)

Richard Heinberg says that high oil prices caused the current recession.

We need to burn fewer fossil fuels and release less carbon to slow down climate change. And because of rising demand from developing nations and decreasing supply, it’s easy to see that our economy needs to kick its addiction to fossil fuels for purely economic reasons.

Richard Heinberg and others argue that it was not the subprime mortgage crisis that led to today’s recession, the worst downturn since the 1930s, but that high energy costs were the true culprit.

We all remember paying $4 for gas just before the collapse of September 2009. Similarly, the previous half dozen recessions were all preceded by high energy costs.

Coincidence?

If energy spikes causes recessions, then, in a time of depleting supply and rising energy costs, the only alternative to a stomach-churning ride of economic ups and downs is to start to wean the economy off of fossil fuels.

Indeed, if energy is the basis of today’s economy — even the standard of value for the U.S. dollar, as some have argued — then no lasting recovery will be possible as long as we rely on depleting fossil fuels.

No amount of bank bailouts, stimulus spending, or low interest rates will make much difference unless we kick our coal and oil habit.

The sooner the better for our families and communities, especially in Staunton and Augusta County, where more than 95% of our energy comes from sources outside of our area.

That means dollars leaking out of the community. But even worse, it means local families and businesses are held hostage to national and international energy markets.

It’s time to declare local energy independence, the only path to energy security  with good jobs and lasting prosperity.