My father was a passionate supporter of shopping locally. He looked first in his  neighbourhood for what he needed to buy, then the city, province and finally  elsewhere in Canada. He also checked the label to make sure it was made in  Canada. He didn’t mind paying a bit more – which really is not the case - if it  meant his purchase would help in its little way to improve the local economy.

My dad taught his children to look at the big picture and understand every dollar spent at home has a direct benefit in the community. These days there are many economic explanations/theories on how each dollar spent locally benefits the local economy. The one I like best is how each dollar spent at home is recirculated at least seven times through other local businesses. To my dad it was pride and contributing in a positive way to community building. It’s just one of the great things I remember about him.

The Portage la Prairie area is home to hundreds of businesses, most of which are locally owned and operated independent businesses. The past decades have seen these very same fiercely independent businesses compete with the introduction in the city of big box stores and now increasingly the faceless dollar drain of online shopping.

I don’t know how many businesses and services there are in Portage la Prairie and area, but I do know I haven’t a clue presently if everything I need can be purchased here. It is my wish through the launch of ShopPortagelaPrairie.com to help consumers to easily search for products and services available here with the click of a mouse or the swipe of a thumb. The ShopPortagelaPrairie.com program can put this information on one easily searchable site. We can create our own online shopping and merchant presence to rival all others. Let’s get personal. Let’s take Portage businesses to the public and let’s take Portage citizens online to Portage businesses via ShopPortagelaPrairie.com

It’s a rough estimate, but experts say millions of important dollars are bleeding to other economies such as Winnipeg or Brandon. Amazon and Walmart are strong online and recent news accounts have them getting even stronger.

Online shopping is convenient. Giants such as Amazon and Walmart make it even more so. ShopPortagelaPrairie.com will help even the playing field.

Many shop out of town because they believe what they were looking for was not available here or finding it required more effort than they were willing to spend to find it!

At the same time, big box stores and online mega stores with more marketing power are capturing customers' purchases and drawing them in and away from the downtown core and local independent businesses.

How It Works

To reverse this trend, we built a local online marketplace and directory that features local businesses and the products and services they offer. The site is accessible from both computers and smart phones.

ShopPortagelaPrairie.com’s community marketplace enables consumers to buy online for in-store pick-up or delivery, read and write business reviews, purchase online gift certificates, view restaurant menus, find out when businesses are open and how they can be paid, as well as contact business owners via e-mail.

As you can imagine, all of these features offer both businesses and consumers tons of value, but the real power of ShopPortagelaPrairie.com is the offline community marketing campaign that involves hundreds of businesses displaying signs and stickers that remind locals to shop locally at ShopPortagelaPrairie.com.

By coming together under a common message that also drives people to a web destination where they can take action, ShopPortagelaPrairie.com harnesses the collective power of the local business community to give independents a voice that's even louder than the big corporate brands that dot the landscape.

Because local independent businesses generally keep more of the money spent with them within the community than corporate chains, shopping with local businesses leads to a stronger local economy.

This benefits everyone in the community as strong local economies provide greater access to opportunities and also more funding for local initiatives like parks and recreation, services and infrastructure, health and education.

By informing local shoppers about the choices available to them, as well as the hidden benefits of shopping locally, ShopPortagelaPrairie.com aims to influence residents to spend more of their money locally instead of sending their dollars outside of the community where it will benefit someone else's area instead of our own.

About Mickey Dumont, Owner/Manager, ShopPortagelaPrairie.com

Mickey Dumont is a passionate advocate for local businesses, Portage la Prairie and is the Publisher/Editor of your new local newspaper, The Portage Citizen.

Seeing a need for a cost-effective way for local businesses to promote themselves online, I came across the ShopCity.com platform and fell in love with the idea of helping people shop locally while effecting a positive outcome to the local economy. With major shopping destinations very close, I learned quickly from local business owners, out of town shopping is a big concern and a drain at the sales till. Conversely, I have heard from many citizens that ‘I can’t find what I want here’, ‘it’s cheaper in the city’ or ‘I like the convenience of shopping online’.

I believe in the power of strong marketing and with ShopPortagelaPrairie.com, I’m putting my money where my mouth is.

Mickey Dumont
Small independent business owner,

Portage la Prairie, Manitoba