Shop Local

How do I shop local?

That's Easy!  Find what you are looking for through our online business directory!  Click HERE to get started!

Why should I shop local?

By shopping, dining, hiring, playing, and entertaining here in Falls Church - rather than somewhere else - we can contribute to our community in many tangible and intangible ways. Local businesses create a stronger community and lessen the tax burden for residents. They contribute to local causes, create jobs, and patronize other local services. There are numerous reasons to Shop The Little City®, here are some of my favorites:

• Generate Revenue for City Programs & Services – When you shop, dine, hire, play or otherwise spend your money at local businesses, you generate income for the city’s general fund. In fact, 1% of purchases and 4½% of restaurant receipts directly benefit the city and its programs and services. Local businesses themselves further contribute to the city’s revenue by paying income, property, and employee taxes. Spending money locally keeps these tax revenues local and helps support the city and its infrastructure.

• Support Schools, Special Events and Nonprofits – Local businesses provide major support and contributions of time and money to our school programs such as PTA programs and the All Night Grad party; community events including the Memorial Day festivities and the Fall Festival; and nonprofit organizations like the Falls Church Education Foundation and Homestretch. Business support of these efforts is crucial to their success and involves the time and money of local businesses, their owners and employees.

• Support and Attract Local Businesses – Falls Church is home to a wide array of diverse small and independent businesses. By choosing to shop local, you will help to keep them here while attracting new businesses to the community. Businesses want to be located near other successful businesses. If our local hardware store, toy store, restaurants and optometrists are thriving, they will attract more businesses to The Little City and provide shoppers with even more options and less “for lease” signs to stare at.

• Go “Green” – By patronizing businesses close to home, shoppers use less gas which saves money and reduces air and water pollution. By shopping local we can help our walkable and bikeable community expand and flourish.

• Create and Maintain Local Jobs – Local businesses provide much needed jobs in our community. Supporting local businesses ensures that they can hire, train and retain quality employees, who often contribute to the community in a variety of ways and patronize other local businesses.

Furthermore, by shopping locally we can:

• Keep Property Taxes Down – An increase in the City’s business tax revenue (see above) supports the City of Falls Church’s general operating fund. The more our business community and sales/meals taxes contribute to it, the less the residents have to support through their real estate property taxes.

• Enjoy Great Customer Service – Shopping locally on a regular basis helps form relationships with business owners and their employees. People like to do business with people they know and trust. And, locally business owners set their own policies and procedures regarding returns, exchanges, etc. and are typically more flexible than large chains.

• Protect Our Future - Many of the benefits listed here and the practices of our local businesses provide wonderful real world lessons for our youth, such as sustainability, a commitment to community, and the spirit of entrepreneurship.

• Save Money – Local businesses are often more competitive in their pricing than shoppers realize, especially when factoring in the cost and time savings by reducing the distance traveled.

Whether you are dining out, attending local events, shopping for groceries, toys, jewelry or wine, Falls Church businesses offer terrific options and quality. Many service providers like auto repair shops, dentists, accountants, arts, beauty salons, picture framers and more, are available right here too. Falls Church offers a splendid selection of places to eat, shop and play. An effort to “shop local” will help ensure that all the wonder services in our neighborhoods will continue to be available to those who live or work in The Little City®.

Next time you sit in traffic on the way to Tysons or somewhere else to shop, ask yourself whether a stroll or bike ride in Falls Church could have accomplished the same shopping needs and much more. The Falls Church Chamber of Commerce,  invites you to discover the joys and benefits of shopping local!

How do you start?  Click here for our Business Directory.