In that short period of time, Howard has already made great progress towards hitting critical mass, building more than 400 Facebook fans, getting dozens of businesses to claim their profile pages, and even collecting testimonials from a business that has already made sales through the site.

"We’ve already seen sales through the site. We received one direct order for a music stand and another customer saw our guitar starter pack on the site and decided to stop in and buy it." writes Brian Staebell, marketing director for Roxy's Music in Batavia.

The spirit of cooperation amongst local merchants and citizens is building. "All boats will rise together -- for local businesses and for local residents."

"The real power of Shop Batavia, though, will be realized when we have widespread participation from local businesses.  The more businesses using Shop Batavia, the more local residents will want to use it as a shopping guide, restaurant guide, community bulletin board, business directory and online shopping mall," writes Owens.

Click here to read the latest update on the ShopBatavia initative on Owens' The Batavian.