There are several factors that make it more and more difficult for local stores to stay in business these days. The resources and sophistication available to larger corporation are usually not available to smaller local businesses. High level online presence, branding, multiple locations and consumer awareness of large national/ international brands are usually not options available to local “mom and pop” shops. However, in many cases, the best places to purchase food, merchandise, various products, services and everything else is using the best local stores.

The goal of this project is to list local businesses so that the public can search online according to geographic areas and type of business category in order to find the best local businesses. We would like to help these local businesses establish an online presence so that they can successfully promote their products and services.

The plan is to list local stores by business type and location and create a local neighborhood map of all the local stores. This would create a searchable database so that consumers can conduct searches such as for example: Local Italian restaurants in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro, or local wine shops in Northern Paris, etc…

In addition to listing the local stores and creating a searchable database, our application will also allow the local stores to list their products and offer consumers to purchase them online just like most of their big brand competitors do.

Like all our projects, we will promote green products and encourage the local businesses to conduct their own business using a “green” approach, but also promote the sale of green products through the local stores.

Most business is still done through local businesses, but these local businesses don’t have a way to make themselves known to potential new customers. By creating this database, we will support and encourage the use of good local businesses. As will every business that we list on the MyPlanet network of web sites, we will encourage our partners members to post reviews so that others can learn about the quality of products and services provided by these local shops. We will also be creating a set of guidelines on www.storeguidelines.comguiding local stores about what is required in order to conduct themselves in a way that their customers will enjoy.

Note – This project is directly related to the bag handle project, which is listed separately as an independent project. We will offer our patented bag handle to local businesses as an additional way to promote their business and track consumer shopping patterns.