The editor-in-chief Donna Ladd over at the free weekly publication Jackson Free Press in Jackson, MS recently published an article about ShopLocal that contained a few inaccuracies.  In it Ms. Ladd makes the argument that ShopLocal is really not “local” at all. This article about ShopLocal was part of an overall piece about “The Local Lie: How Big Stores Are Pretending to be the Little Guy” (pg 14 – 20).

The core issue at hand seems to stem from a definition of what “local” means.  Does “local” mean:

• One’s physical store location?
• The store ownership residing in the same proximity as the store’s location?
• Having a store location in any given town?
• Only having a one to a few store locations?

The answer is YES to all of the above.  Local has become a very nebulous term these days.  To further prove the point, here are some hard to categorize “local” scenarios:

• A regional retailer with 20 stores across 10 different towns.  Is this store still local?
• A corporately owned, but regionally and/or locally managed and operated store. Even though the profits are going back to corporate, does this count as a local store?

So with all this confusion around the meaning of “local”, the ShopLocal team has long broken down the word local into three (3) unique categories:

• National-local: These are stores that have a national footprint, but still on a granular form have local market presences across many communities and cities.  Here is an example aggregated site of these national-local type advertisements for the Jackson, MS area
• Local-local: These are stores that are only found in one region. Examples include a small up & coming chain or a successful multi-location family business.
• Hyper-local: These are stores that are only found in one (1) and only one town. Typically, these are referred to as mom & pop type operations.

ShopLocal does focus mainly on the national-local types of retailers, but ShopLocal however has been deeply involved in Jackson, MS local-local and hyper-local advertising since 2005 with a competing local newspaper called The Clarion Ledger (Gannett owned).  Over the course of five (5) years, ShopLocal has worked to promote and publisher 2,585 ROP (run of press) ads in total for some of the most hyper-local, mop & pop type businesses in and around the Jackson, MS metro area.  It doesn’t get any more local than that Ms. Ladd.  The yearly breakdown of the these Jackson, MS metro area ROP ads that ShopLocal re-published online (within this locally co-branded version of ShopLocal.com) is as follows:

• 2005: 435 ads
• 2006: 762 ads
• 2007: 451 ads
• 2008: 675 ads
• 2009: 262 ads

Over this five year period, the top local-local Jackson, MS advertisers that ShopLocal has worked with have been:

1. McDade’s Market
2. Shoe Station
3. Hobby Lobby
4. Shoe Gallery
5. Southeast Foods
6. Sam’s Stock Room
7. City Wide Cleaners
8. Bath Fitter
9. Fads & Frames
10. Lee Michael’s Fine Jewelry and Distinctive Gifts
11. Batte Furniture
12. Steen & Beaver
13. Lemuria
14. At Home Seniorcare, Inc.
15. Craft Office Plus

So contrary to what the misinformed article suggested, ShopLocal does truly support both the national-local retailers (like CVS, Target, Sears and Office Depot) and the local-local & hyper-local type of retailers (in this case, Shoe Station & Southeast Foods).

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