There’s no denying it…the Christmas shopping season is upon us. In the hustle and bustle of the season, you may have noticed campaigns for shoppers to buy from locally-owned businesses.

Earlier this year, Civic Economics conducted a survey on locally-owned businesses in the Salt Lake City market. The results show retailers return a total of 52.0% of all revenue to the local economy while the restaurateurs return 78.6%. In comparison, national retailers return a mere 13.6% and national restaurateurs return only 30.4% to local markets.

Without question, locally-owned businesses bring substantially higher benefits to local economies when compared to large national chains.

Goldenwest Credit Union has been a local, not-for-profit financial cooperative for 76 years. Utahns have understood and benefited from the cooperative business model since before becoming a state in the 1800s.

Our 86,000+ members, the vast majority of whom live in Utah, own this credit union. All 20 branch offices are located in Utah. Our 290 employees live in Utah. Our credit union supports local events and causes. We spend millions of dollars with local vendors to sustain operations. Furthermore, we lend millions of dollars to help local businesses grow. We strongly believe it is our fiduciary responsibility to help members achieve financial success, and help create a local economic environment where small businesses can thrive.

Evidence of the goodness of the not-for-profit financial cooperative business model is manifest in our bonus dividend. Goldenwest has returned more than $5 million to members with the bonus dividend program for nine consecutive years. For December 2012, our Board of Directors declared a 4.50% APY dividend, giving more than $700,000 to members.

Bringing your loans to Goldenwest helps our credit union become stronger. Likewise, referring your family and friends to Goldenwest helps our financial cooperative grow. The result boosts our local economy…producing more jobs, generating more revenue and building better communities.

In many ways, it’s the busiest and best time of the year. I hope you have the chance to spend the holidays with the people who matter most to you. As always, I invite you to follow me on Twitter @GoldenwestCUCEO for the latest news about our credit union.

Kerry H. Wahlen
President/CEO