Mission
Think Local First
There’s something special about the Hudson River Valley. Here there exists an opportunity to shop in locally owned businesses selling unique products or offering old-fashioned tailor-made customer services. Here there are world-class tourist destinations like the Walkway Over the Hudson and the FDR Home and Museum. Here you can dine in some of the finest restaurants anywhere in the country, many served by local farms and agriculturalists and staffed by graduates from The Culinary Institute of America, a feeder system that has led to one observer calling the region “the Napa Valley of food.”
In an era of increasing homogenization where major conglomerations dominate the landscape of so many cities and towns across America, here in the Hudson Valley were are lucky – lucky to be able to hang on to our unique cultural identity, fortunate to be a place where local business, small business, family business and community-focused business is not just welcome, but the backbone of everything we are.
But so much of what makes our Valley special only exists so long as we all continue to fight for it. Whether we’re businesspeople, tourists or consumers, we all have a choice where and how we spend our money. Make the right choice – the choice that helps keep our community bonded together, the choice that helps our region remain a destination, a place unlike any other – Think Local First.
Thinking Local, when you shop, when you dine, and even when you shop online is how we keep business right here in the Hudson Valley.
When you Think Local First, you’re supporting a business or service provider that has a vested interest in what the Hudson Valley becomes. This helps a significantly higher percentage of the dollars you spend stay here at home where they can be re-invested either through other like-minded businesses, community organizations or as tax revenue for our local government that is used to keep our social services and infrastructure strong. Imagine if every time you made a purchase, you were helping a local businessman make a larger contribution to a local charity. What if every meal you ate at a restaurant was helping the family farm down the road stay in business and perhaps expand? Your dollars go farther when you Think Local First, and you’re getting much more in return, even if you can’t see it at the time.
When you Think Local First, you’re also supporting the employment of local people. Oftentimes, when a multi-national corporation generates a profit in an area, it ships those profits back to corporate headquarters. But when a small business does well and can offer more services, it usually creates jobs. When a thriving restaurant can open a second location across town, that creates jobs. This employed population can then help perpetuate the cycle, using their own dollars to Think Local First and support their friends and neighbors, starting a cycle of economic expansion that’s to everyone’s benefit.
Remember, we all have a choice where spend our money. Make the right choice, and Think Local First!
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Think Local First!Remember, When You Shop, When You Dine, and Even When You Shop Online, Think Local First!Then remember to think about ways to go even farther.
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