The Shop Fontana Movement is a cause oriented and community based grassroots effort raising public awareness about the benefits of buying locally within our city. It is important to share to the community the value of spending money where it matters the most. By buying products and services from local businesses, the dollars are recycled back to the community in the form of the local sales tax generated by the city, which in turn, is used for funding services to its residents.

            In this economic recession when small businesses are feeling the brunt of consumers tightening their budgets, there occurs a cascading effect that negatively impacts the revenue generated in the form of city sales tax because of the lack of sales from the businesses in Fontana. Sadly, many businesses end up closing their doors and those that still survive have to cut back by laying-off people and reduce their costs of doing business such as cutting hours and stopping advertising. Having weak local businesses causes the local economy to suffer because the city needs the sales dollars from businesses. Needless to say, we are all affected by this dilemma – the businesses, the residents, and the city. Because we are all in this together, the solution is to act together so that we can help sustain our community and keep Fontana’s economy strong.

Let me illustrate a case that provides a big picture of the importance of buying in Fontana. When you buy a car that costs $30,000 dollars, you are contributing $300 to the city. The city gets 1% from every purchase you make in Fontana. That’s one dollar $1 for every $100 hundred dollars you spend. Yes, this time residents of Fontana, every dollar counts and helps the bottom line of preserving the better standard of living we enjoy living here in Fontana.

Fontana’s business leaders is in full support of the Shop Fontana Movement through the Chamber of Commerce and the city officials wanted the whole community to band together and get everyone’s involvement to keep Fontana’s local economy strong.

With Fontana’s youthful residents at a median age of 27.8 years, the movement will be bolstered through online media. On the web is where most of Fontana consumers are at, they are surfing the web at home, work, library, and in public places as well as mobile devices. Our consumer population is mostly generations X and Y; they are tech savvy and connect to the internet on a daily basis. The best way to reach our youth is through new technologies such as social networks. We can get their support in helping the community – Fontana’s youth is the key to keeping our city strong and they are our community’s number one asset.