Independent Businesses Banding Together to Form Watertown Local First

Owners of independent businesses in town will join together to create Watertown Local First as a reaction to the

Don Levy, owner of the Deluxe Town Diner, told those at the Sustainable Watertown forum on the proposed box store about the effort.

“I live and work in Watertown and I would like to be able to keep serving the community as we do,” Levy said. “Local First aims to keep people buying from local stores, to keep people going to local restaurants.”

Watertown Local First will hold a founding meeting on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. at

Watertown’s group will be modeled on other Local First movements across the country. Locally, Cambridge and Somerville have successful efforts, Levy said.

An announcement released by organizers said Watertown Local First has the following objectives:

• To raise awareness among consumers, businesses, and government agencies on the importance of buying locally and to inform them about the locally owned businesses that exist in Watertown.
• To support locally owned businesses by encouraging consumers to spend more of their purchasing dollars locally. Even a 10 percent increase of local purchasing would make a profound difference in the economic sustainability of locally owned businesses and the health of the community.
• To strengthen the local economy. Several studies have shown that national chains spend 13 percent of their sales locally, while locally owned businesses spend upwards of 45 percent of their sales locally.
• To support public policy that improves the business environment for locally owned businesses.
• To preserve the unique character of our community.

Along with Levy, other local business owners have already signed on, including: Barry Steinberg of Direct Tire & Auto Service, Paul Maslow of Strip-T’s, Ahmad Yasin of Yasin Culinary and Randall Imal of Imal Keller Moore Architects.