The Original Shop Local Delmarva

How local is local?

2026-06-30T08:42:01.565-04:00

The question reminds me of a similar question I faced as a gardening enthusiast. I concentrated on growing native plants, but the question arose: how native is native? On one end, some gardeners argued only plants that our first settlers would've found growing in what is now my backyard is native. On the other end, as long as the plant could be found in the state, it is native. Most gardeners fell somewhere in between, usually narrowing the definition to a smaller geographical area such as the county or a hundred-mile radius where the garden is located. Purists, however, argued there was no such thing as a native plant since most of our native plants have the genes of non-native or hybridized cousins.

The same range of thought exists with what one defines as a locally owned and operated business. Some argue that only businesses within or very near one's town is a local business. Others argue that businesses founded in the state are a local business. Most people fall somewhere in between. Purists, however, argue there is no such thing as a locally owned and operated business as most businesses require the services or products from outside of the region in order for the owners to conduct their business.

The answer to what defines a locally owned and operated business is further complicated by other factors. Some would argue that a locally owned franchise should qualify as locally owned and operated. Others would argue that a business, whose owner has moved out of state but still maintains the business locally, is locally owned and operated.

Now here is a trick question. Is Delmarva Buildings a locally owned and operated business? They have operations in MD, VA, NJ, and even an office in OH. What about Goose Creek? Their locations are concentrated on Delmarva, but they are home to Subway, which is not locally owned and operated. Surely some investment group outside of Delmarva must own them.

In both cases, how The Original Shop Local Delmarva's defines locally owned and operated means both businesses fit the definition of locally owned and operated. Delmarva Buildings is headquartered in Wyoming, DE and Goose Creek is a subsidiary of Cato Oil, headquartered in Salisbury, MD. While personal information is private, there is enough readily available public information to reasonably believe the owners of the two different companies live on Delmarva at least part of the year.

So, yes, The Original Shop Local Delmarva considers both companies locally owned and operated.

As for the Subways in the Goose Creek stores—they pay a lease or rental fee to the Cato Oil business owners to operate inside the store. A stand-alone Subway wouldn’t count as “locally owned and operated,” since the company is headquartered in Connecticut and franchise owners benefit from free, nationwide advertising—something our Mom-and-Pop shops can’t afford. But the Subways inside Goose Creek stores do pay a local leasing fee, which means they’re putting money into the local community (through Cato Oil), just like a bag of potato chips made and packaged outside Delmarva puts money into the community when someone buys it from the store.

There are probably as many definitions to "locally owned and operated" as there are people who try to answer the question, how local is local. Shop Local Delmarva considered all the ranges of thought on the subject, but discovered the definition came down to two key questions: what sort of business keeps most of its money circulating within the local community and what is the "local community"?

With those two questions in mind, Shop Local Delmarva first defined "local community" as all of Delmarva. The reasoning was based on the fact that most of Delmarva is rural in nature and one couldn't expect to find everything they would need in their local town. One may need to travel thirty miles or more to the next nearest town, but they could still support the local businesses there instead of relying on the national chains. A strong Delmarva economy is more helpful for our small towns than the national economy, alone. The thought is that studies have shown for every hundred dollars spent at Mom and Pops, sixty-eight dollars stays in the community to fund our schools and local projects compared to forty-eight dollars for a franchise or thirteen dollars for a national chain.

Ultimately, the definition of a locally owned and operated business is up to the individual to decide for themselves. Whether one only considers shopping local in his/her immediate community or a larger geographical area, the important thing is shop local, Delmarva! If everyone made a ten percent shift in their spending habits towards locally owned and operated businesses, your local economy would see huge benefits.

Cuddles' notes:

Shop Local Delmarva excludes franchises and absent‑owner businesses because both send profits and decision‑making outside the community, limiting local economic benefit and identity.

Cuddles' notes:

The Original Shop Local Delmarva defines local as the geographic area south of the C&D Canal down to the mouth of the Chesapeake at the Bay Bridge Tunnel and bounded by the Susquehanna and Chesapeake Bay on the west side and the Atlantic on the east side.

Make the 10% shift

2026-06-30T08:41:04.084-04:00

Here's the biggest obstacle for many to shopping locally: Why should I pay $1.09 for a widget at a locally owned and operated business when I can get the same or equal widget for $0.99 at a Big Box Store or off the Internet?

The shop local message is directed at two audiences: one with disposable income and one who budgets from paycheck to paycheck.

For those who have disposable income, the message of why one should shop local rings loud and clear and are, most likely, shopping local as much as they can.

For the majority of people who are living from paycheck to paycheck, budget is important and no matter how many stats one posts about the benefits of shopping local, the shoppers' bank account determines where they'll shop. Invariably, these consumers will opt for the widget that is ten cents cheaper.

Getting people to shop local or at least thinking about breaking their routine and visiting some locally owned and operated shops is a three-pronged effort being undertaken by The Original Shop Local Delmarva.

First, educate the average shopper on the benefits of shopping local. The benefits one would see in their community if everyone shopped local is a bit intangible to some yet immediately conceptualized by most, regardless of their budget.

Second, show the average consumer that not everything is "overpriced". Sure, one could save by buying some "necessities" at a big chain store, but there are plenty of locally owned and operated businesses that offer competitive pricing, and, yes, even cheaper pricing. Not only do they offer competitive pricing, but they also offer a variety of products, often locally produced or in a "niche market" that one would never find in a big box store.

Third, offer an opportunity to encourage the average shopper to shop local and discover what the big box stores don't offer. Big box stores want you, your family, your neighbors, and friends to have everything the same because mass-produced items can be sold cheaply. Your locally owned and operated businesses offer a variety the big box stores can't.

Some studies suggest that a 10% shift in spending habits aimed towards our locally owned and operated businesses would result in $140 million in new local economic activity, create over 1,600 new jobs, and provide $50 million in new wages. No matter how tight one's budget is, making a 10% shift in spending habits is a doable goal for most people.

The Original Shop Local Delmarva plans to create a Shop Local Delmarva Day to help the average consumer learn more about why it is important to shop locally and to help achieve the 10% (or more) shift in spending habits. By designating one day a month as Shop Local Delmarva Day, the average consumer can decide the best way to support their local community by supporting their favorite locally owned and operated businesses.

Let's say a couple spends $1,500 per month in all the major areas of expenses such as food, clothing, household, home improvement (including yard and gardens), and entertainment. To meet the 10% goal, the couple could choose to spend $150 all on Shop Local Delmarva Day in several different locally owned stores or spread the spending out over the entire month (about $34 per week), depending on the couple's budget.

With the numbers broken down, the couple can easily make conscious
buying decisions. Thirty-four dollars per week isn't a whole lot of money. They can decide to stop at a produce stand on their way home from work to buy fresh, local produce (food); buy a new pair of shoes and a new shirt or blouse at a local boutique during their lunch hour (clothing); stop at the local hardware store on their way home from work for odds and ends hardware (nails, hinges to fix a cabinet, or some paint or wood finish to bring new life to a piece of furniture or room) or stop at a local garden center for a bag of mulch, pest control products, or new fencing (home improvement); and stop at a locally owned restaurant, deli, or grocery market to pick up something to eat and drink instead of going through a national chain's drive thru (entertainment).

With little changes like these, the couple would easily make the 10% shift in spending habits towards our locally owned and operated businesses. It may not sound like much, but if everyone made the tiny shift, the effort could be the difference between a community surviving and a community thriving.

Subscription Scrutiny

2025-09-02T21:39:00.005-04:00

One of the most frequent questions I receive is why there are different levels of monthly subscriptions. The question is usually framed in the context that the business owner does all the work listing their business, and then the listing just sits there. Why should they pay for that? Let's break the justification for subscriptions down into smaller pieces.

You own your business description

A new customer's first impression of your business will be made through your business description on the app. Who better to write that description than you?

"But I'm terrible at writing," you might think.

So are professional writers. Did you know when Stephen King wrote Carrie, he wrote about three pages of his idea for a novel and threw it in the trash? Those three pages included the famous shower scene that led to Carrie being bullied by her classmates. His wife dug those first three pages out of the trash, read them, and threw them on her husband's desk telling him he had something good there and needed to finish the story.

You might be wondering why he didn't like it in the first place. His primary thought was that he felt unqualified to write convincingly from a female perspective. His wife promised him to help fill in the female perspective. Two weeks later, with the help of his wife editing the female perspective, he finished Carrie. The rest is history.

No one expects a business description to rise to the level of a best seller. But King's story (verifiably true, by the way) teaches us two valuable lessons.

We all have a story in us. The story of your business is yours, and yours alone. Only you can tell it honestly.
We aren't perfect at getting the story's tone and perspective right no matter how good of a writer you are. It's ok to seek help where our writing might be weak.

Write your business description. Let it sit for a couple of days. Re-read it and you'll be surprised how many edits you'll make yourself.

If you think it's still not good enough, get your spouse, kids, best friend, or even your neighbor to read it. Their suggestions might help you see your description from different angles.

If you still are doubtful, hire a professional. They've dealt with business descriptions and know what works and what doesn't work. Be aware, though, they might be wrong, or at least not completely on target. They don't know your voice or fully know the tone you want to set for your business.

If you're still in doubt after trying all of the above, there's always AI. This advice comes with lots of

Click pic to enlarge

warnings. The first is you should understand that AI is a tool about as smart as a library. Like a library, AI has all the information it needs to write a business description, but it lacks the human experiences and emotions to write one that will connect with other people.

Bottom line: trust in yourself. Your customers value honesty and a real human face more than they trust a cookie cutter business description.

What about all those subscription levels?

Running an app like The Original Shop Local Delmarva comes with a development cost and a baseline monthly cost. The development cost, at this point as is, has already been paid for. The baseline monthly cost I had calculated as an expense I would be willing to pay for a while as I built and launched the app.

As the app grows, my baseline costs go up. The more people who add themselves to the directory, the more my baseline rates go up once I surpass my maximum number of entries. The more people who use Google maps to find businesses, the more my baseline costs go up. The most expensive cost is the monthly maintenance fee to my developers, who ensure that any Google Play updates (which is, in itself, another baseline cost) are compatible with the app. And I still have to get Apple to accept my app (hopefully at the beginning of next year), which will add to that baseline cost.

I'll be honest here. If everyone decided to stick with the free subscription, I most likely would need to shut down The Original Shop Local Delmarva. To cover all the current and potential costs, I had to come up with a subscription plan.

Ok, you're panhandling. How much should I throw in your cup?

A million dollars would work. But seriously, I'd rather build a new economic model that makes our local communities on Delmarva stronger and more financially independent by relying on our locally owned and operated businesses instead of relying on state, regional, and nationally owned businesses. Ultimately, that is my ten-year goal for SLD, economic independence from outside retailers.

We're in Phase 1 of that development. I built the starting tool, The Original Shop Local Delmarva app. In this phase, I am trying to build a useful and viable app that gives shoppers and consumers the confidence that they are truly supporting Delmarva's locally owned and operated businesses. That is the reason for my stringent requirements to ensure that only locally owned and operated businesses are listed. If potential users of the app see franchises or national chains listed, the app has lost its integrity.

Phase 1 is the ground floor entry point for everyone. Getting listed is free through the Shorebird subscription level. Do it once and then renew it every month and you're done as I keep building the effort behind the scenes. You have nothing to lose except a couple of clicks a month to renew, free. (You can list your business here.)

During Phase 1, you might want to consider the Oriole level. For twenty bucks a month, you get an extra hundred words in your business description plus a link to your website or social media account and a link to your online menu, if applicable. You can always update from your free listing to an Oriole subscription at any time with a few clicks of your mouse.

The Oriole level, available in monthly or annual rates, should cover SLD's monthly baseline costs plus allow SLD to grow and change to better fit your needs. First up will be to change the monthly renewal requirement of free accounts to a biannual, or even annual, requirement. The renewal requirement for free accounts is only to ensure there are no "dead end" businesses, that is, businesses that are no longer operating, and could lead users on a wild goose chase.

Past there, at this stage of development, the other subscription levels offer more, but not all aspects of what I envision to offer are available yet. That means the Osprey and Heron levels might become valuable to you down the road (projected to be maybe 3-5 years from now) as SLD continues to grow. Just like upgrading from free to Oriole is a matter of a few clicks, upgrading to the other levels is quick and easy.

What could possibly justify an Osprey or Heron level subscription?

In my 5–10-year plan for The Original Shop Local Delmarva, I see your business listing as your personal advertising platform where potential customers can discover their locally owned and operated businesses in a "one stop" virtual shopping tour. I believe that in five years, we’ll see a shift in shopping habits: shoppers will regularly browse and buy online, then either pick up in-store or have items delivered. What’s now a convenience practice will become the standard way to shop.

Experts claim that after 2030, only five years from now, AI will see explosive growth we can't even begin to fathom. Doubtful? Look how far AI has come in three years. That means, with AI, for the first time in history, Mom and Pop might be able to effectively compete with the national chains in visibility and service.

I want SLD to be your resource for the rapidly changing technology, economy, and consumer habits coming. You can bet the big-name stores are already on top of it and have plans in place to succeed in the new, evolving economy. Since AI will be available to everyone, not just the Big Boxers, I hope to put Mom and Pop on a level playing field with them through education and visibility.

The two higher subscriptions will offer access to any new AI tools for marketing development, a resource library to learn how to use the new tools, and participation in a "Delmarva Dollar Days" program that is still in its planning stage.

Couldn't I wait until later to sign up when all these other things are in place?

Your participation now will bring the ten-year plan to fruition. It costs nothing to get listed, but that first step builds a directory that others will find useful and start using. The more people who download and use the app, the more valuable the Oriole subscription might become. The more valuable the Oriole becomes, the faster SLD can grow and become a positive economic and political advocate for Mom and Pops on Delmarva.

There are no shop local programs on the regional scale that even comes close to the model I envision for SLD. There are a few efforts that incorporate some ideas I hope to use, but there’s no blueprint for what I hope to build with your help. While plenty of ‘shop local’ campaigns have come and gone, few created real ownership, and none combined media, education, advocacy, and commerce across an entire region. With your help, we’re not following a model; we’re becoming the model.

I hope Delmarva can meet or surpass all other shop local milestones by 2030. By 2035, I hope Delmarva is the model for all other communities to follow.

I can't do it without you. Please add your business to the directory today:

👉 https://businessowner.shoplocaldelmarva.org/login

Please feel free to share this newsletter with anyone and everyone.

If you received this newsletter from a friend and like what you see, please sign up for future issues here:

👉 https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/1461570/152240065949467848/share

And, as always, shop local Delmarva!

Fixing the Leaky Bucket

2025-08-27T22:52:00.003-04:00

When our business leaders, planners, and politicians look at ways to revitalize local towns and rural areas, the usual proposed solutions focus on ways to bring more money into the community. Typical approaches to bringing in money involve promoting tourism, agriculture, corporate relocations and other forms of inward investments. What is often overlooked is the important concept of money flow within the community.

Think of your local economy as a bucket. Bringing in money to your community is like pouring water in the bucket. The bucket is going to have some holes in it and some of the water will leak out. Some of the holes can’t be fixed so you will always have a leaky bucket. The state and federal government will collect taxes, for example. That is a hole that can’t be fixed.

Other holes can be fixed. Residents who shop at a box store, for example, will shop locally if the locally owned store offers the same product or service at a competitive price. A strong shop local movement and messaging encourages more local shopping. Locally owned and operated businesses have more flexibility in offering locally grown produce or locally caught seafood products. Locally owned businesses often fill a niche that chain stores often fail to fill.

The idea of the leaky bucket illustrates the importance of money flow through a community. The longer the bucket holds water, the less frequently the community needs to refill the bucket. All that money flowing in and through the community can be used to sponsor a little league team or build a new park instead of finding new ways to keep the tap flowing into the community.

Let’s put the illustration in simple dollars and cents. Some studies suggest that for every dollar spent at a locally owned and operated business, sixty-eight cents stays in the community. The same dollar spent at a nationally owned store sees thirteen cents staying in the community. In the middle are our locally owned and operated franchises. For every dollar spent with them, forty-eight cents remain in the community.

Now an important concept comes into play, a concept called the multiplier effect.  The sixty-eight cents from your dollar that stayed in your community is spent by that business owner or employee at another locally owned and operated business.  Forty-six cents remains in the local community.  If the person who received the forty-six cents continues the trend of spending locally, the money will pass through seven more hands—for a total of nine of your friends and neighbors—before the leaky bucket has taken it down to two cents.

At the national box store, the employee, who received the thirteen cents in his pay, spends it at another nationally owned business.  Only two cents remain in the community. In effect, the original dollar you spent at the national chain is gone after passing hands to only one of your neighbors or friends.

In the middle are the locally owned and operated franchises. You spend a dollar there and forty-eight cents stay in the community. The business owner spends that forty-eight cents at a locally owned or operated franchise and a quarter remains in the community. Continuing the trend on down the line and that original forty-eight cents would pass through the hands of six of your neighbors or friends before it disappears from the community.

In the real world, it isn’t always practical, and often not even possible, to spend your money exclusively at locally owned and operated businesses. But you do have the power to slow the leaks. Several independent studies have concluded that a 10% shift in our spending habits to support locally owned and operated businesses would create hundreds of new jobs and tens—if not hundreds—of millions of dollars in new economic activity.

You have the power to patch some of the leaks in your local economy's bucket. Here are steps you can take to slow, and maybe stop, some of those leaks:

Whether you're a business owner stocking your store, a contractor stocking your toolbox and truck, or a shopper who needs something different, think local first. Even if you think local once a month, you've taken a big step in slowing the leaks in your community's bucket.
Download The Original Shop Local Delmarva app. Currently, the app is only available for Android devices, but Apple devices are coming soon.
If you are a business owner, get listed in the app. You don't need an Android device to list your business. Once I get Apple approval, the app shares the same database as Google. I'm hoping for approval from Apple around the start of the new year.
Follow The Original Shop Local Delmarva on Facebook and Blogger. Get the latest news and updates before they even hit Cuddles Clipbbord.
Participate on the monthly Shop Local Delmarva Day. Details to be announced on Facebook and Blogger.

Please stay tuned. A lot is coming. As always, feel free to let me know what you want. Email or call me. The Original Shop Local Delmarva app is your app. Help design the app and shape the Shop Local Delmarva movement the way you want it.

Tips on getting listed in the app

2025-06-15T02:10:00.002-04:00

It's not mispelled, It looks like Old English to me.
Please remember Cuddles is doing his best.

When I first started planning the development of The Original Shop Local Delmarva app, I was faced with an initial, but crucial, decision. How should I get locally owned and operated businesses listed? Now that sounds like a very straightforward question, but the answer carries serious implications about what sort of website or company you are dealing with.

Let's take Yelp as an example. Like most online business directories, Yelp scrapes the Internet for businesses, lists them, and then provides a link for the business to "claim" their listing. Until the business finds out that they are listed on Yelp, they rack up reviews unbeknownst to the owners. Any negative reviews go unanswered, which could cost the business new customers.

If you search "Locally owned and operated businesses in [your town], [your state]", you might end up on the site www.chamberofcommerce.com. It might look official to you, but it is not. They, too, scrape the Internet for business listings without the owner's permission. You are expected to know your listing is over there getting reviews, some of which might be negative. Users might believe they are on an official Chamber of Commerce website, but they are not.

And then you have legitimate Chamber of Commerce websites that list local businesses, but their listings include every business that pays their dues to the Chamber. Users have no clue which businesses are truly locally owned and operated as opposed to any business (franchise or nationally owned) with a physical presence in the town the Chamber is located. My Chamber of Commerce, for example, listed a business headquartered in Texas. I'm willing to bet a sizable portion of residents think of it as a locally owned and operated business, but it is not.

My developers gave me the option of scraping the Internet to load the SLD directory. I rejected their suggestion. My philosophy was, and still is, based on a simple idea. Your business listing is yours and you should have complete control over where, when, and how it should be used.

I didn't develop The Original Shop Local Delmarva to make money other than what is needed to run the app. I set out to level the playing field for the Mom and Pops so that they can effectively compete against the franchises and national corporations. (There is a caveat in what I just said about franchises, but I'll cover that in a future article. If you are a franchise owner, please feel free to contact me.)

I reckon with what I just said above, either I have much longer range of views for SLD (I do) or I'm getting tired of typing (I am). But you, the business owner, and you, the user, share the SLD driver's seat. I'm just the navigator. Bots roaming the Internet best stay in the marked crosswalks.

With that said, please allow me to address some of the sign-up concerns I have heard and the workarounds you can use to get listed without feeling like you might be compromising your privacy concerns or feeling overwhelmed by the technical requirements.

What's with this W9 requirement?

The W9 helps me confirm that your business is both real and locally operated. In reality, the W9 only lists your company (verifying you're not sixteen-year-old Sally selling hair ribbons out of her bedroom) and business address (your headquarters aren't outside of Delmarva). In other words, your W9 doesn't share important information that might be a privacy invasion. The W9 simply states the information that is already public information and is used regularly in business-to-business transactions. It is one of a few tools I use to ensure the integrity of the directory. The tools aren't perfect, but all are a matter of public information. Some of those same tools are used by those scraping websites I mentioned.
What if I simply don't want to send you my W9?

Don't send it. Contact me instead. You can email me at support@shoplocaldelmarva.com or call me at 410-463-4196. (If I don't answer, please text me. Some day I might figure out how to set up my voicemail.)

It's not too hard to convince me you are locally owned and operated. Once I'm convinced, I'll send you a properly formatted form to substitute in the W9 field.

Here's a thought for you. You want to get listed, but how do you know I am a locally owned and operated directory? You don't until you talk to me.
What if I'm a home-based business and want to conceal some private information like a home phone number or address?

The address and phone number fields are not cross referenced by the app. You will want to make sure your town, state, and zip code are accurate to ensure your potential customers at least know the general area your business is located. Your phone number can be real or masked. If, for some reason, you don't want anyone to know your phone number, you can enter 555-555-5555 and you're good to go. My developers, however, assure me that they followed proper protocols to protect your information from bots that roam the web looking for phone numbers and emails. While an incomplete street address might go unnoticed, a masked phone number or email address may raise some eyebrows among your potential customers.
Where is my information stored?

Any information you share with SLD is stored in the cloud until you delete your listing. The only people who have access to your information is my development team and me. For example, if you submit your W9, it is stored in the cloud that only my developers have access to. The app then emails me a copy so I can review it. I review the copy and then delete it. None of your information is shared or sold to anyone.

Oh, and once my developers send me a contract completion form to sign (it's in the works), even they won't have access to the cloud and your information anymore.
I'm busy and don't have the time to figure out the technical aspects of listing my business. What do I do?

Simply email me (support@shoplocaldelmarva.org) with a description of the problem you are having. Together, we'll get you listed.

I'm very big on privacy. When new technology hit the market in the form of the telephone, privacy rights were immediately raised. In 1928, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Olmstead v. United States that wiretapping phone lines didn’t violate privacy rights because the lines were public property. Justice Louis Brandeis dissented, famously stating that the Constitution protects "the right to be let alone." It took another almost forty years for the US Supreme Court to reverse that 1928 ruling. During Nixon's presidency, the US Supreme Court ruled that a warrant is required to tap the phone lines.

While our Congress hasn't exactly caught up with the Digital Age, I strive to operate in the digital world under the strictest of privacy considerations that I think should be, not what is. My guiding principle is you have a right to be left alone. My app relies on third party entities, and I try to make sure the third parties follow the same principle.

Don't you just hate it when you're enjoying a chicken neck and a net scrapes you up and throws you in a basket? You won't find any of that tomfoolery going on around here.