Local businesses gathered Saturday to promote themselves to the community and fight the recession in Phoenix for the fifth annual Certified Local Fall Festival.
The festival drew more than 5,000 people with more than 20 participating businesses. The festival was hosted mainly by Local First Arizona while local business Duck and Decanter took a lead organizing role.
Local First is a nonprofit organization that tries to help strengthen community economies; Duck and Decanter is a wine and gourmet shop that is a member of Local First. Local First Arizona executive director Kimber Lanning said the event was held to remind the community about local businesses.
“This is not supposed to be a pity party,” she said. “We’re reminding people that community-owned businesses are the backbone of our community. We bring culture that drives tourism, jobs that bring intelligent people to our city.”
Lanning said for every $100 spent locally, $45 re-circulates and stays in the state as opposed to the $13 that stays in the state when people make purchases at chain stores. Lanning cited this as a reason people should purchase local merchandise but also said it’s particularly important for people who like community services.
“Anybody who cares about the future of trash collection to parks and libraries should care about where the money is going,” Lanning said.
Mary Beth Marcus, owner of Desert Song Yoga and Massage Center was also at the fair, along with a booth to promote her business. Marcus said she has been in business for 27 years and has been through three recessions.
Because of this, she feels she knows how to weather the storm better than most.
“I’ve been through this before so I know how to handle it,” Marcus said. “Business has definitely dipped and it has been a little hard, but there are ways to tough it out.”
Marcus said one of those ways has been to offer weekend classes for $7, something she said is more affordable to everyone, but especially affordable to students.
“I offer classes on how to deal with insomnia and stress, and I have found most of the people who take them are 18, 19, 20,” she said. “It surprises me, but they keep coming.”
Journalism freshman Molly Dupuis attended the festival and said it’s important to support local businesses.
“I think us being down here makes us part of the community,” Dupuis said. “We should support our local resources so the profit does go back to the community.”
It’s also a good way to find things that are out of the ordinary to do, she said.
“You find more interesting restaurants to eat at, places to shop, things that you could do in every city in America,” she said.
Dupuis is an out-of-state student from Minneapolis and said she has found Phoenix is a different kind of city.
“Phoenix is a newer city, and it’s really cool to watch it grow while maintaining a community feel,” she said.
Reach the reporter at sheydt@asu.edu .
