About Made in Utah Festival

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UTAH STORIES – THE FESTIVAL ORGANIZER

  • Utah Stories is a free monthly publication that takes pride in providing authentic and unbiased journalism in this era of sensationalism and media valuing more their political agenda than the truth.
  • Utah stories was established in 2009 as a print publication, it existed as a website since 2007.
  • We focus on educating our readers about Utah and its issues in the context of its history, we highlight small businesses and unique characters and their success stories as well as their struggles.
  • Our goal is to inspire our readers as well as to bring awareness to the importance of supporting local businesses and the impact of the government being run by and for large corporations.
  • Made in Utah Festival is an extension of Utah Stories where we offer not only exposure of small businesses that cannot afford a large marketing campaign, but also bringing them together into a community of businesses ad consumers that collaborate and learn from each other.

 

IMPACT OF SMALL LOCAL BUSINESSES

Through our research we found out that small businesses have a much larger impact on local economy and community than they were given credit for. Namely:

  • They strengthen the middle class: the low and medium skilled workers are paid more in small businesses than in large corporations.1
  • Recirculate a greater share of every dollar in the local economy by creating locally owned supply chains and investing in their employees: they employ more people per unit of sales. A study commissioned by BC of the Canadian Union of Public Employees found out that, only 10% shift of the market from chains to independent small businesses would produce 31,000 jobs paying $940 million in annual wages. 2
  • Are linked to higher income growth and lower levels of poverty: Goetz and Fleming analyze in their paper 2,953 counties, including both rural and urban places and concluded that those with a larger density of small, locally owned businesses experienced greater per capita income growth between 2000 and 2007. 3
  • Promote a community’s level of social capital, civic engagement, and well-being: By examining of U.S. Census data and county-level data it was found that states with a greater share of locally owned retail experience a less-steep slope of college graduates migrating out from their counties. 4
  • Generate more tax revenue for cities, with less cost, than sprawling big-box shopping centers
  • A study in our own neighborhood, Salt Lake City, found out that the local retailers return a total of 52% or their revenue to the local economy compared to just 14% for the national chain retailers. For local restaurants the numbers are even more drastic, they recirculate 79% of their revenue locally compared to 30% for national chain restaurants. 5
  • Small businesses retain more employees during economic downturns: for example, during the recession of March 2008 to March 2009, the employment growth rate of large employers fell 1.65 percent more than the growth rate of small local businesses. 6

 

1. “Wage Inequality and Firm Growth”, H. M. Mueller, P. P. Ouimet, and E. Simintzi, LIS Working Paper632, March 2015.
2. “Independent BC: Small Business and the British Columbia Economy”, Civic Economics, Feb. 2013
3. “Does Local Firm Ownership Matter?”, S. Goetz and D. Fleming, Economic Development Quarterly, April 2011.
4.“College Graduates, Local Retailers, and Community Belonging in the United States”, S. Stroope, A. B. Franzen, C. M. Tolbert, and F. C. Mencken, Sociological Spectrum, Feb. 2014.
5. “Indie Impact Study Series: Salt Lake City, Utah”, Civic Economics, Aug. 2012.
6. ”The Contribution of Large and Small Employers to Job Creation in Times of High and Low Unemployment”, G. Moscarini and F. Postel-Vinay, American Economic Review, October 2012.

 

 

ORIGIN OF MADE IN UTAH FESTIVAL

Utah Stories focuses on promoting local businesses and product makers by writing stories about them.
These stories were well received by our readers so we decided to organize the festival that will

  • Bring our readers in contact with businesses they read about
  • Further promote and market local businesses
  • Form a community of producers and consumers where they know, support and learn from each other

 

WHERE AND WHEN

  • Saturday and Sunda, August 24 and  25 2019
  • From 12 pm to 8 pm (Saturday) and 12 pm – 6 pm (Sunday)
  • At the Gateway Mall in SLC Downtown

 

WHAT TO EXPECT

  • 80 vendor booths stretching along Rio Grande Street from 100 South to 50 North
  • A big music stage with 9 exceptional local bands performing
  • 10,000 visitors that are there to shop and support local businesses
  • VIP area featuring local food and beverages
  • Made in Utah Vendors Workshop Tuesday, August 13, 2019 6 pm – 8 pm

 

BENEFITS OF TAKING A PART IN THE FESTIVAL

  • Market your business as a supporter of local economy
  • Expose your brand to 100,000 Utah Stories readers, 30% of them are newcomers to Utah
  • Become a part of the Made in Utah community, by giving presentations to smaller businesses at our networking / learning sessions
  • Build meaningful relationships with Utah Stories readers and local businesses taking part in the festival