Local Ownership, Local Decision Making

When we talk about “local business”, we’re talking about local ownership and independent decision making.

Ownership is important because value stays local. The owners live here. They pay taxes on their earnings here. They are personally and financially tied to the community more than corporate chains.

Independence of decision making is important because it allows the business to choose its suppliers. These include inputs from farms, food processors and product manufacturers, or services like legal, accounting, HR, payroll, and marketing. An independent business has a more local supply chain than non-local chain competition. The big chain eatery has many of its decisions made by a head office. This means a local upstart marketing company doesn’t have much of a chance of doing work for a national chain. It means the local farmer doesn’t have much chance of getting their chicken onto a chain’s menu either.

When you combine local ownership with independence of decision making, you start to uncover businesses that are making decisions for reasons other than simply making a profit. They own the business and don’t have to serve shareholders above all else. They are independent in their decision making and have the freedom to run their business the way they want to. And they see the impact of their decisions more directly in the community they live.

Three weeks ago, The Pennyloaf Bakery announced it is getting rid of plastic. The owner, Suzanne Gessler, is an example of a business owner who works for more than just earning a profit. The decisions she makes at her business reflect the values she has – getting rid of plastic is a perfect example.

Suzanne can also act more quickly and make these changes swiftly. When we read about changes like getting rid of plastic bags at larger multi-nationals, it’s often far off in the future. It takes a long time for a company to make those kinds of decisions. It disturbs well-oiled internal processes and adds cost. Usually, the driver for larger companies is consumer backlash. They wait until the issue is important enough to lose customers. Pennyloaf, on the other hand, is proactive and moves quickly.

Here is what was posted on their Instagram page when they announced the change:

“This October it will be five years since we hung a sign in the window. Winnipeg it’s been a good 1/2 decade and with it we’ve noticed where we get to be better stewards of our shared earth. On average, we were handing out 3000+ bags a month, just for bread. The math on that over five years is 180,000 plastic bags. That chaos stops today. With going plastic-less we wanted to provide some further alternatives and options. To start, we’ve paired up with Sew Dandee. She’s made us these sustainable hemp bread bags, both clean in design and practical in use. If you need or want to gift one to yourself or someone you fancy, you’ll not only be supporting a local female entrepreneur, you’ll also be lightening your ecological footprint. It’s a win-win.”

After scrolling through the comments, there was something from Sew Dandee herself:

“I can’t even express the amount of joy and gratitude I feel seeing local people publicly making such important shifts in their business practices. And the fact that I can participate in the shift. Thank you to the moon and back for this project, Suzanne and I can’t wait to see the changes happen one customer at a time!”

The combination of ownership with independence of decision making is what enables local business owners to be proactive and make decisions that reflect their values. They are nimble. They move quickly and can make swift changes without needing to justify it to shareholders only interested in profit. This is a similar theme to what was in our piece on “who’s got your back” about Hearts and Roots. It’s happening around us all the time. Next time you notice something like this, know that local ownership and independence of decision making is what enables these people to use their business as an extension of themselves. The freedom allows them to use their business as a source of good in the world.

Leading photo: Suzanne Gessler of The Pennyloaf Bakery – photo credit