In development · Launching with the platform, September 2026
For city government & community development
Good Circles for cities & community development
Good Circles gives municipalities what shop-local campaigns never could: measurement. Because the marketplace processes local transactions, it can show a city its live local spend retention, where capital leakage is worst, and which business categories residents are asking for — privacy-preserving aggregates, no new infrastructure to build. The data layer launches with the platform (September 2026, Jackson metro first).
The stakes: what leakage costs a community
Survey research popularized by Civic Economics and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance finds that roughly $53 of every $100 spent at an independent local business recirculates in the community, versus about $14 of every $100 spent at a national chain. That 4-to-1 gap, multiplied across a city's household spending, is the capital-leakage problem community development exists to fight — and today most cities can only estimate it from lagging indicators like sales-tax distributions and years-old leakage studies.
What the platform is designed to give you
- Live spend-retention dashboards — retention for your jurisdiction as it happens, not in next year's study.
- Leakage measurement by category — when residents buy externally through the platform's bridge, that demand is visible by category: a live map of what your local economy is missing.
- Demand mapping for business recruitment — recruitment conversations backed by observed resident demand ("this ZIP wants a bakery") instead of anecdote; in early-access communities, neighbors literally vote for the businesses they want.
- Privacy by design — aggregates only; no individual shopper data leaves the platform.
Honest framing, as always: these dashboards are in development and launch with the marketplace — we're not selling cities software that doesn't exist. What exists today is the model generating the data (how it works: shoppers save ~10%, businesses keep 89% of profit on a 1% fee, 10% of profit funds shopper-elected nonprofits) and the founding-partner design process.
The I-20 corridor collaborative — an open invitation
Good Circles' Mississippi rollout runs along I-20: early access is underway in Meridian & Lauderdale County (see the founding community) and the September 2026 launch lands in the Jackson metro — now with city pages across Central Mississippi between the two anchors. We're inviting municipalities, counties, chambers, and community-development organizations along that corridor to design a shared spend-retention effort: common metrics, comparable dashboards, and a collective story about keeping East-Central Mississippi's dollars in East-Central Mississippi.
Why this beats a traditional shop-local campaign
Bumper-sticker campaigns ask residents to pay more out of civic duty; they fade because the incentive points the wrong way. Good Circles flips the incentive — residents save about 10% shopping local while funding a nonprofit they chose — and gives the city the measurement layer for free. Community development partners can also point organizations at the free nonprofit resource hub and businesses at founding merchant signup today.
Questions
Cities & community development FAQ
What is local spend retention?
The share of resident spending that stays in your local economy — recirculating through local payroll, suppliers, and giving — rather than leaking out through national chains and online platforms. Civic Economics survey research puts recirculation at roughly $53 of every $100 spent locally versus about $14 through national chains.
How do cities measure capital leakage today?
Mostly indirectly: sales-tax distributions, periodic leakage/surplus studies, and consultant gap analyses — all lagging indicators, often years old. Transaction-level local commerce data changes that: retention becomes observable as it happens, by neighborhood and category.
What would a Good Circles dashboard show a city?
The design: live local spend retention for your jurisdiction, category-level demand (where residents want to shop locally but can’t), neighborhood-level business activity trends, and aggregate community-funding flows — privacy-preserving aggregates, not individual shopper data. It launches with the marketplace; nothing is sold to cities before it exists.
What does a shop-local program with Good Circles cost a city?
The platform itself launches as infrastructure cities plug into rather than a program they must fund and staff: residents join free, businesses pay a 1% fee on profit, and the data layer for founding municipal partners is part of partnership design now underway. Request a briefing for specifics.
What is the I-20 corridor collaborative?
An open invitation: Good Circles launches along the I-20 corridor — early access in Meridian & Lauderdale County and the September 2026 launch in the Jackson metro. Municipalities and community-development organizations along that corridor are invited to shape a shared spend-retention effort spanning both anchors and the towns between.
Bring measurable spend retention to your city
Founding partnership briefings for municipalities and community-development organizations.