If you've walked around Downtown St. Petersburg for any amount of time, you can see just how much the city prides itself on the power of independent business. From restaurants to nightclubs, bars, and retailers, Downtown St. Petersburg businesses provide a one of a kind neighborhood experience for St. Petersburg residents and visitors alike.
To preserve that experience, a core group of local businesses in St. Petersburg have formed Keep Saint Petersburg Local, a new chapter of the American Independent Business Alliance in the city.
Keep St. Petersburg Local premiered with a launch party at Nova 535 earlier this week featuring Mayor Bill Foster who praised the proliferation of independent business in St. Petersburg.
According to the Keep St. Petersburg Local website, "Every dollar spent with locally-owned businesses generates over three times the local economic impact as compared to spending with national chains."
Keep St. Petersburg has a number of goals including building awareness of the benefits from doing business with those that are locally-owned, increasing cooperation between independent business, and gaining discounted advertising rates with local media.
This comes in the wake of yesterdays news of Baywalk's future remodeling and hopes to bring in national retailers like the Apple Store as anchor tenants in the new complex.
