Supporting your local economy can seem overwhelming.

Why should you go out of your way to support your local farmers when you can get cheaper produce elsewhere.

Why go to an independent bookstore when you can get the books cheaper on Amazon?

Well when you spend your money at local and independently owned businesses the money does more than you think.

A while ago I heard about the 3/50 Project, an effort to get people to spend $50 a month at 3 local businesses in an effort to boost local economies.

“If half the employed population spent $50 each month in locally owned independent businesses, it would generate more than $42.6 billion in revenue.”

“For every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures. If you spend that with a national chain, only $43 stays here. Spend it online and nothing comes home.”

That got me thinking, where does the web fit into all of this?

I consider myself a fairly digital person and I am the first person to gravitate to shopping online. So what do sites like Etsy do to the local economies of their sellers? Has anyone crunched the numbers on that?

Even though the web might not be able to help us with all of our local purchase decisions, it can help us find places to spend our money that are independently owned.

Delocator is a website designed to help users locate independently owned businesses.

Launched in 2005 Delocator was created so users could locate independently owned cafés. The Delocator is the opposite of an online retail store locator, common to corporate store websites. In 2006 book stores and movie theaters were added. Finally, in 2009, users can log in to the site, modify their entries and add more types of independently owned stores.

Do you know of other online resources that help users support their local economy? Leave it in the comments and I will add to the post.