You may not realize it, but you have the power to help a King Township retail business and service provider succeed, and by realizing their investment they in turn give more back to the community.

You further have the power to contribute to local resources, events, neighbourhood improvement & beautification, quality of life, jobs and driving economic development and sustaintability.

How you might ask ... because you hold a great deal of power of course and all you have to do to help realize many of these objectives is to Shop King First. By doing so, you put your dollars to work in a myriad of ways in your own community, while enjoying the convenience, superior service and saving money.

King Township is unlike any other place. By choosing to support locally owned businesses, you help maintain King’s diversity and distinctive flavour. Your local shop owner or service provider is your neighbour and is concerned with the same things that concern you, and together you create the community in which you live.

2. Community Well-Being & Lifestyle

Locally owned businesses build strong neighbourhoods by supporting local initiatives and events, and by adding character, linking neighbours, contributing to sustainability and supporting local causes. Non-profit organizations receive an average 350% greater support from local business owners.

King Township residents, tourists & visitors enjoy the Nobleton Victoria Day Fair & Fireworks, Schomberg Farm Tour, Schomberg Agrigultural Fair, Studio and Garden tours and the Kettleby Fair ... just to name a few of the many King Township events, festivals and fairs, courtesy of the chamber, volunteer groups & your local merchants.

Local ownership means committment to the community and that important decisions that affect us all are made locally by people who live in your community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions right along with you. That's powerful stuff.

Your dollars spent in locally-owned businesses have three times the impact on your community as dollars spent outside of your area. When shopping locally, you simultaneously create jobs, fund more city services through sales tax, invest in neighborhood improvement and promote community development and beautification. Your neighbours in businesses and affiliates return approximately 70-80% of each dollar spent back into the community in one form or another.

Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in some sectors, provide better wages and benefits. Local business owners are more likely to offer jobs to the youth of the community. Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally and are the back bone of our society.

Entrepreneurship fuels Canada’s economic innovation and prosperity. Entrepreneurs add diversity of services and creativity to a community. A growing body of economic research shows that in an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.

Local stores in town centres require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores.

Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers - which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.

A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices based on your needs and in many cases your requests.

Shopping locally saves you time & money, but most importantly makes you a contributing member of your community and keeps you connected to it and the people who help shape the places where we live.