Why Everyone Says They Support Local (But Doesn't). What the Research Is Telling Us
This time of year, everyone loves to talk about shopping local. Small Business Saturday is right around the corner. Your Instagram feed will fill with "support small businesses" graphics. Brands will tout their local roots and community connections.
But here's what nobody's talking about: the reason most people don't shop local has nothing to do with not caring enough.
We surveyed 2,200+ consumers to find out what actually stops them from supporting local businesses. Turns out, 30% cite limited product variety as their primary barrier, and 27% cite limited availability.
Translation? People want to shop local. They just can't find what they need when they need it.
This isn't a story about consumer values or holiday marketing campaigns. It's about infrastructure—and the brands that are quietly solving this problem are winning customers away from national chains without anyone noticing.
Does Shopping local really matter?
Here's the thing about shopping local: it's not a fringe value. It's mainstream.
24% of all U.S. residents say supporting local businesses matters when they make purchasing decisions. Not just Core Conscious Consumers or sustainability advocates—everyone. And that number holds remarkably steady across segments:
Core Conscious Consumers: 55%
Likely Conscious Consumers: 31%
Aspirational Conscious Consumers: 18%
Unlikely Conscious Consumers: 12%
Not Conscious Consumers: 13%
Even people who don't typically buy based on values still think supporting local matters. This is as American as apple pie.
So if everyone believes in shopping local, why are big-box stores still crushing it during the holiday shopping season? Why do Small Business Saturday feel-good campaigns rarely translate to sustained behavior change?
Because belief and behavior are two different things. And the gap between them isn't about caring less—it's about facing real barriers that make local shopping harder than it should be.
Want practical strategies to help conscious consumers choose local businesses over national alternatives? Download our free guide: "Does Shopping Local Matter? 5 Ways to Turn Intent Into Action."
The Real Reason Your Holiday Shopping Cart Is Full of Amazon
When we asked consumers who say they want to support local businesses what's actually stopping them, here's what we heard:
Top barriers to supporting local/small businesses (Aspirational segment):
Limited Product Variety: 30%
Limited Availability: 27%
Higher Costs: 16%
Time/Effort Required: 9%
Competing Priorities: 7%
Do the math: 57% of barriers are purely logistical. It's not about preferring Target over your neighborhood shop. It's about needing something on a Tuesday night after your local store closed, or looking for a specific brand they don't carry, or not even knowing a local option exists.
And here's the kicker: this pattern showed up everywhere. Among Unlikely Conscious Consumers—the people least motivated by values—35% who wanted to support local businesses said limited product variety was the main problem. Even the skeptics aren't opposed to shopping local. They just can't find what they need.
When Black Friday and Cyber Monday roll around with infinite selection and 24/7 availability, local businesses aren't competing against better marketing. They're competing against infrastructure most of them can't match.
Let's Talk About What "Limited Availability" Actually Means
When 27% of consumers say limited availability stops them from shopping local, they're not making excuses. They're describing reality.
Maybe the local bookstore doesn't have weekend hours that work with their schedule. Maybe the farm stand is cash-only and they forgot to stop at the ATM. Maybe they don't even know there's a local alternative to what they usually buy on Amazon because nobody's telling them.
Put that together with the 30% who can't find the product variety they need, and you've got over half of consumers blocked by structural issues before price even enters the conversation. Only 16% of Aspirational consumers cited higher costs as their main barrier.
Think about that. The entire "shop local" conversation has focused on convincing people to pay premium prices to support their community. But most people stuck in the Amazon checkout aren't doing cost-benefit analysis. They're just trying to find what they need, and local options aren't making it easy enough.
During the holiday shopping rush, this gets even worse. When you need to knock out your gift list in the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, convenience isn't a luxury—it's everything. Local businesses lose not because shoppers don't care, but because shoppers are stressed, time-crunched, and defaulting to what's easy.
Breaking Down the Barriers
Let's get specific about what's actually stopping people, because the details matter.
For Aspirational Conscious Consumers—that's 37% of U.S. residents, the biggest segment—the barrier breakdown looks like this:
30% say local stores don't carry what they need. Not "don't carry enough options," just straight-up don't have the thing they're looking for.
27% say local stores aren't accessible or convenient. They're too far away, have limited hours, don't do online ordering, or the consumer doesn't even know they exist.
16% point to higher costs. Yes, price matters. But it's the third problem, not the first.
Only 9% say shopping local takes too much time and effort. And just 7% say they have competing priorities that trump local business support.
The pattern holds even for Unlikely Conscious Consumers—the skeptics. 35% cited limited product variety. 28% cited limited availability. These aren't people philosophically opposed to local businesses. They're just trying to find a coffee maker or a birthday present, and the local shop doesn't have it.
What Most Brands Get Wrong
Walk through any holiday market or Small Business Saturday event and you'll see the same messaging everywhere: "We're local. We're authentic. Support us, not the big guys."
It's a values play. And according to our data, it's solving the wrong problem.
Among all consumers who say they want to support local businesses:
Only 7% cite "competing priorities" as their main barrier
Only 4% cite "peer/culture pressure"
Only 10% cite "lack of information"
People aren't walking past local shops because they don't value them enough. They're not choosing Walmart over Main Street out of social pressure. They're not confused about whether local matters.
They just need to find what they're looking for, and local businesses aren't consistently delivering that. Which means the brands winning conscious consumers during holiday shopping season aren't the ones shouting loudest about values—they're the ones that show up when and where customers actually need them.
Want practical strategies to help conscious consumers choose local businesses over national alternatives? Download our free guide: "Does Shopping Local Matter? 5 Ways to Turn Intent Into Action."
The Brand That's Quietly Winning
So who's actually breaking through with consumers who care about supporting local businesses?
Anderson Windows & Doors.
Among Aspirational Conscious Consumers who prioritize local business support, 28% selected Anderson—nearly double Wayfair's 18% and more than four times Whirlpool's 6%. Among the skeptics (Unlikely Conscious Consumers), Anderson leads at 31%.
Here's what makes this fascinating: Anderson isn't small. They operate at scale. But they've cracked the code on something most brands miss.
When we asked why people chose Anderson, 22% cited "small business feel"—the highest of any brand we measured. Anderson has figured out how to position a premium product as local-adjacent, creating an association with community-based businesses even while maintaining the distribution and availability that actually gets products to customers.
They're not winning on authenticity alone. They're winning because they've made their local connections visible and verifiable while solving the infrastructure problems that make everyone else inaccessible.
That's the playbook: you don't need to be small to capture "shop local" values. You need to make your community impact real and then actually be available when customers need you.
Five Things That Actually Work
Based on what's blocking consumers, here's what helps:
1. Fix the product variety problem. 30% of consumers who want to support local can't find what they need. Either expand your range strategically, partner with other local businesses for cross-referrals, or make special ordering ridiculously easy.
2. Solve the accessibility gap. 27% cite availability as their barrier. Extend your online options. Make your hours visible. Offer pickup and delivery. Partner with local delivery services. Make finding and buying from you as easy as Amazon—or at least as easy as Target.
3. Don't lead with price. Only 16% say cost is their main issue. Most people will pay fair prices to support local—they just need to find you first. If you're defaulting to "but we're worth it because we're local," you're solving a problem most customers don't have.
4. Make your local story specific. Anderson wins 28% of local-focused consumers partly by making their community connections tangible. Don't just say you're local—show who you employ, who supplies you, and what specific community impact you're creating. Make it real, not aspirational.
5. Remove the friction. 9% say shopping local takes too much effort. Streamline your checkout. Make your product info accessible. Integrate with the tools people already use. Every extra click or phone call is a chance for them to default back to Amazon.
The Opportunity Nobody's Talking About
Here's the stat that should wake up every local business owner: only 11% of consumers who want to support local businesses say "none of these barriers apply."
That means 89% of people who already want to shop local are facing solvable friction. These aren't philosophical problems. They're operational ones.
Which means local businesses that fix availability and variety aren't just competing with other local shops for a small pool of conscious consumers. They're competing with Amazon and Walmart for a huge pool of consumers who already want what you're selling—they just can't access it easily enough.
And the timing matters. Core Conscious Consumers—the most committed segment—cite supporting local/small businesses at 55%, more than double the general population. These aren't casual supporters. They're actively looking for local options.
Right now, during the holiday shopping season when everyone's buying gifts and stocking up, these consumers are hitting the same walls as everyone else. If you can remove those walls, you're not capturing a bigger share of the "shop local" niche. You're capturing market share from national brands that only compete on convenience—against people who are actively hoping to find an alternative.
So What Should You Actually Do?
The strategy depends on who you are.
If you're a local business:
Your advantage is authenticity. Your challenge is operations. The brands winning aren't shouting "buy local" louder—they're making local purchasing actually convenient.
Invest in online presence that works. Build partnerships with other local businesses so you can refer customers instead of losing them. Make your community story specific and real. And make sure people can find your inventory before they drive across town.
If you're a regional or national brand:
Your advantage is distribution. Your challenge is connection. Anderson proves you can win "shop local" values at scale—but you have to make regional presence and community impact visible and provable.
Highlight local facilities, employees, and partnerships. Make your community investment specific, not generic. Create customer experiences that feel personal, not corporate. Build relationships with local suppliers that actually mean something.
For everyone:
The consumers who want to support local businesses already exist. They're 24% of the U.S. population. They're not a niche market.
The question isn't whether to go after them. The question is: are you making it easy enough for them to choose you? Because right now, most aren't. And the brands that fix that problem first are going to take a lot of market share this holiday season and beyond.
The Bottom Line
Shopping local isn't struggling because people don't care. It's struggling because most local businesses can't compete with the convenience infrastructure that national chains have spent decades building.
57% of barriers to shopping local are logistical: product variety (30%) and availability (27%) beat out higher costs (16%) by a landslide.
This holiday season, when Small Business Saturday rolls around and everyone posts their annual "shop local" reminders, remember: most people who don't follow through aren't choosing against local businesses. They're just choosing what's available, accessible, and easy to find.
The brands winning this market—like Anderson Windows & Doors, which captures 28% of consumers who prioritize local business support—aren't winning with better values messaging. They're winning by making local credentials visible while actually being available when and where customers need them.
Local businesses that solve availability and variety challenges won't just capture more conscious consumers. They'll take market share from national brands that only compete on convenience—against a consumer base that's already looking for alternatives.
Want practical strategies to help conscious consumers choose local businesses over national alternatives? Download our free guide: "Does Shopping Local Matter? 5 Ways to Turn Intent Into Action."
This analysis is based on Guru's proprietary research study of 2,200+ consumers across the conscious spectrum, conducted in partnership with Portland Marketing Analytics. For more insights into conscious consumer behavior, visit weareguru.com or connect with our research team at connect@weareguru.com.
