Happy Independents Week!

CELEBRATE INDEPENDENTS!
All Month Long

put your money where your house is

The Tampa Independent Business Alliance (hereinafter TIBA) invites you to celebrate o ur terrific community of locally owned independent businesses during the 6th annual INDEPENDENTS WEEK, July 1 - 7 and continuing throughout July. Learn more about why and where to shop and dine locally at www.tibatampa.org and www.amiba.net.

Learn about TIBA's great members, and pick up TIBA's new member directory here. Keep visiting locally owned indies throughout the month of July, and enter TIBA's annual drawing for hundreds of dollars in gift certificates. Entry forms will be available here at Vinyl Fever and at participating TIBA member businesses, from July 1 - 31. (No purchase necessary, of course). We'll even enter you if you write us at TIBA@vinylfevertampa.com and tell us why YOU shop independently. Don't forget to include your name and a phone number.

Paraphrased below is an important message which Inkwood Books' Carla Jimenez delivered so eloquently in a recent address to City Council:

When we ask you to Celebrate Independents, we want you to move through the community with your eyes wide open to what makes Tampa Tampa. Think of what you would show a newcomer or visitor - you certainly wouldn't take them to a chain. We are fortunate to have a vital and diverse array of indies to choose from, for everything from donuts to fine dining, for vintage clothing or the latest fashions, the best books and music, soothing massage and cutting edge hairstyles. You can select unique gifts at Serendipity, pick up the latest CD from a local band you heard on WMNF radio at Vinyl Fever, or buy local blueberries at Nature's Harvest. Who among us wouldn't agree that no chain comes close to Big John's Alabama Barbeque, Mema's Alaskan Tacos, or Carrollwood Bagels? In each of these businesses you'll be offered personalized attention, from owners and managers who are accountable, accessible, and deeply committed to their community. We all bring our individuality, our character, and our passion to our businesses to our community, and we're here to stay.

Locally owned independents add diversity to our shopping options, bring life to historic buildings, volunteer for local causes, and are involved in civic matters, improving our quality of life in countless intangible ways. But we are not just quaint and charming: the tangible benefits of localism are measurable and significant. Locally owned independents are powerful economic players that deserve acknowledgement and support.

We circulate money right here, for local goods and services from banking to health care to printing and cabinetmaking, while taxes support our schools, arts and culture, parks, and law enforcement. Study after study - from Maine to Arizona to Texas to Chicago - confirms that local stores and restaurants generate more than three times the local economic activity of remote controlled national chains, while up to 80% of money spent in national chains leaves town in the night deposit. The "multiplier effect" of taxes collected from such local expenditures brings up to five times the revenue for public projects

In New Mexico, they say Keep Albuquerque Quirky; in Texas, it's Keep Austin Weird. We're just asking you to be neighborly and shop locally.

TIBA Member Directory