Does a buy-local campaign actually change where people spend money, or does it mostly reach residents who were already shopping downtown? That question shaped the design of Centerville's 2024 Spend Local First initiative and the post-campaign survey conducted to evaluate it. The findings are specific enough to be useful for other districts weighing similar programs.
Background: where the holiday spending was going
In October 2024, Main Street Centerville volunteers surveyed 312 downtown visitors, asking each one to estimate what share of their November and December purchasing they planned to spend at local independent businesses versus chains or online retailers. The numbers were not good. Respondents expected to direct an average of 22% of their holiday budget to local independents. The remaining 78% was split: national chains (38%), online retailers (31%), out-of-town destinations (9%).
This matched national patterns. Research on local purchasing behavior consistently shows that consumers deprioritize local options during the high-volume holiday period, partly because convenience and gift-range anxiety push them toward platforms with guaranteed fulfillment. The question was whether a structured, low-cost campaign could shift that for even a portion of Centerville shoppers.
Centerville's downtown had 43 independent retail and food-service businesses when the campaign launched. Median annual revenue among participating survey businesses was approximately $190,000. At that revenue level, a modest volume increase can be the difference between a viable year and a net loss. The SBA's 2024 Small Business Economic Profile documents that revenue stability in the $150,000-$250,000 range is where small business survival most frequently tips one way or the other.
Campaign design and budget
The Spend Local First campaign ran November 1 through December 31, 2024. Main Street Centerville coordinated the effort with a budget of $4,800, sourced from membership dues and a $2,500 matching contribution from the city's community development office. The campaign had four components.
2024 Spend Local First: Budget and Structure
| Component | Budget | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Printed pledge cards + window clings | $680 | 3,200 pledge cards distributed via library, schools, and participating businesses |
| Social media content production | $1,100 | 8-week organic content calendar, 3 short-form videos featuring participating merchants |
| Email campaign management | $420 | 6 broadcast emails to 2,847-subscriber list; click and open tracking |
| Spend Local Passport incentive program | $2,600 | Physical passport booklets stamped at each merchant visit; prizes for 5+ stamps ($25 gift cards, donated by merchants) |
The Passport program was the distinguishing piece. Participants collected stamps at ten designated downtown businesses and were eligible for a prize drawing at the end of each month. A total of 428 passport booklets were distributed; 214 came back with five or more stamps. That was a 50% completion rate against a planning estimate of 35%.
Results: post-campaign survey findings
In January 2025, Main Street Centerville surveyed households that had taken a pledge card or Passport booklet. Of 428 contacted, 289 responded (67.5% response rate). Each respondent reported actual holiday spending by category, which allowed a direct comparison to the October baseline estimates.
Local Spending Share
38%
Average actual local share among respondents, up from 22% baseline projection. A 16-point shift.
Total Redirected Spending
$214,000
Estimated total spending redirected to local independents, calculated across 289 responding households.
Passport Completers
214
Households completing 5+ merchant visits, double the initial goal of 100 completions.
New Customers per Merchant
avg. 11
Average number of first-time visitors reported by passport-participating merchants over the campaign period.
The $214,000 figure requires a methodological note. It comes from self-reported survey data, which overstates actual behavior to some degree: respondents who completed the survey are not a random sample, and pledge-takers lean toward reporting favorable outcomes. A conservative 25% discount puts redirected spending at roughly $160,500. Either way, that is a significant return on a $4,800 outlay.
Return on campaign investment
At the conservative $160,500 estimate, the campaign produced approximately $33 in redirected consumer spending for every $1 spent on the campaign. Research on the local multiplier effect suggests that spending retained at independent businesses recirculates through the local economy two to three additional times before leaving the area, so the true economic gain is higher than the raw redirected spending figure.
Why the passport mechanism worked
Pledge-only buy-local campaigns have a well-documented limitation: they reach people who are already motivated and change little for occasional shoppers. The Passport changed the dynamic. Getting a stamp requires walking into the store. You are no longer aspiring to shop local; you are already inside. Merchant interviews after the campaign found passport visitors converted to purchases at roughly 70%, with average transaction values within 15% of typical customers.
The multi-merchant visit requirement also produced discovery that would not have happened on its own. Several merchants said passport visitors told them outright they had not known the business existed. That matters most for businesses without active social media, which was about a third of participating merchants. There is no algorithm pointing customers to a shop with no online presence; the passport did that job.
Research from the Rutgers University Small Business Development Center on consumer behavior in small commercial districts finds that coordinated incentive programs requiring multi-business visits produce sustained patronage changes at roughly twice the rate of single-business promotions. The explanation is simple: familiarity drives repeat visits, and the passport accelerated familiarity in a single campaign cycle.
Limitations and what the campaign did not accomplish
The survey covered only households that opted into the campaign. The roughly 55% of downtown visitors who did not take pledge cards or passports were not tracked. Their spending behavior is unknown. The campaign also showed no measurable effect on online spending, which held roughly flat among respondents. Shoppers who increased their local share mostly did so by redirecting from regional chains, not from e-commerce.
The National Main Street Center's guidance on economic vitality programs recommends measuring merchant revenue directly alongside consumer surveys. Centerville did not do that in 2024. The 2025 version of the program adds a merchant revenue tracking component to put supply-side numbers next to the demand-side survey data.
Replication considerations
The 50% passport completion rate surprised the organizing committee. Post-campaign interviews pointed to two factors: the monthly prize drawing created urgency, and the physical booklet was a constant reminder that participants carried in their bags or pockets. Digital-only loyalty systems in comparable campaigns have hit completion rates of 20-28%. The physical object appears to carry functional value that a phone notification does not replicate.
Districts with fewer than 20 merchants may find the five-stamp threshold too easy to complete without genuine cross-district discovery. A tiered format with a basic level (3 stamps), a mid level (5 stamps), and a top level (8 stamps) could preserve broad participation while identifying the high-engagement segment whose behavior is most likely to carry past the campaign window.
Run a Buy-Local Campaign in Your District
Main Street Centerville's Business Development program provides templates, merchant coordination, and campaign planning support for member districts launching buy-local initiatives.