Everything you need to point the money back in your town. No app store, no head office, no permission required. Gather five neighbors and put your Main Street on the map.
A chapter is a handful of neighbors who decide, out loud, to keep their town's wealth at home. You build and maintain the local directory, run small recurring events, and make the better choice the obvious one — block by block, business by business. There's no membership fee, no boss, and no franchise agreement. The whole movement runs on one playbook: the five verbs. That's the job.
Shop the local directory. Money is a vote — cast it on Main Street.
Keep wealth local. Bank at a credit union or CDFI, not a megabank.
Barter & timebank. Trade skills and hours, not just cash.
Buy-nothing, mutual aid, tool libraries. Gift it. Refuse the landfill.
Spotlight the businesses capital skipped. Lift, don't extract.
Head to the directory, find your town, and put your name on it. If it's not there yet, you're the founder — start it. One chapter per city; you're not asking anyone's permission, you're declaring it.
Walk your commercial strip and list twenty independently-owned spots you already love — the coffee shop, the hardware store, the repair guy, the taquería. Twenty is enough to look real and give people somewhere to spend on day one.
Pick a back room, a bar, or a library meeting room. Invite the twenty businesses and anyone who'll listen. Explain the five verbs, hand out window decals, and sign up the room. Keep it under 90 minutes and end with a date for the next one.
Stand up a simple offers-and-needs board — a corkboard, a group chat, or the Swap page on the site. "I'll fix bikes for help moving." It's the cheapest way to prove the economy the chains can't touch is already here.
Set a date roughly a month out and run the seven-day plan below. It gives the chapter a deadline, a story, and a reason for the local paper to cover you. Then do it again next quarter.
Every business you add makes the next spend easier. Point owners straight to the claim flow — they list themselves in two minutes, you verify it's independent, and it lands on the directory and the map. Prioritize the businesses the system underserves first.
The simplest 5S event there is. No money changes hands — that's the point. Everything left over gets donated, nothing goes to the landfill.
Seven days, one verb-themed action a day. Promote it with a single hashtag, get the local paper on board, and tally what the town kept at home by Sunday.
Kick-off. Everyone buys one thing from a directory business and posts it.
Switch-your-bank day. Open an account at a local credit union or CDFI.
Post one offer and one need to the swap / timebank board.
Give something away — buy-nothing post, tool-library drop, or mutual-aid shift.
Spotlight an underserved-owned spot. Review it, tag it, bring a friend.
Crawl day. Group walk of 5+ independents. Decals in every window.
Add up dollars kept local, thank the businesses, set the next date.
Photocopy it, sticker it, paste it in the window. Here's the actual text — set it in Saira Stencil, print it black on the cheapest paper you can find.
Headline: WE'RE ON THE LOCAL MAP · Tagline (marker): #SpendItHere · Footer line: 5sethos.org · independent · listed free
Headline: SPEND LIKE YOU GIVE A F*CK · Sub: START A 5S CHAPTER IN YOUR TOWN · QR/footer: 5sethos.org/join
A chapter that betrays these isn't a 5S chapter. They're non-negotiable, and they're what keeps this a movement instead of a marketing list.
The point is to keep wealth in town. Never run the chapter in a way that pulls money or labor out of the community it serves.
The directory is not for sale. No sponsored slots, no paid placement, no "featured" tier. Listings are ranked by usefulness, never by who paid.
We don't sell, rent, or trade anyone's data — businesses or neighbors. No surveillance, no algorithm farming your attention.
Everyone's welcome at the table regardless of race, gender, sexuality, immigration status, or income. We lead with the underserved.
Disagree hard, treat people well. No harassment, no bigotry, no bullying. The movement is bigger than any one ego.
No gatekeeping, no purity tests, no clout chasing. If someone shows up to spend, swap, share, save, or support — they belong here.
No head office is coming to save your Main Street. The kit is in your hands — gather five neighbors and go.
spend like you give a f*ck