I neglected to post the second part of the Current's Buy Local series, so here it is.
A solid effort offering multiple perspectives. The majority of the business owners interviewed appreciated the effort but didn't necessarily support the bylaw banning(I initally typed buylaw. Seems more fitting) chain stores from downtown for many of the reasons previously stated: a few Gaps here and there might draw more business to downtown.
But I was struck by one seemingly innocous comment by one shop owner.
“We enjoy the tourist trade, but we count on local customers to keep us in business.”
Really? That's actually quite startling because the majority of people I talk to about downtown don't shop in our local stores. They may hit local restaurants, but not local stores.
And I always got the sense the local stores were okay with that. The Chamber of Commerce seems focused more on finding ways to bring new people and new money to town. There's wisdom in that for sure, but as we've discussed, the notion of buying locally owned and locally made products is increasingly popular.
The chamber should be seeking to capitalize on that.
So one has to give a lot of credit to the Buy Local group. They not only got this discussion going, but if I'm not mistaken they're the ones who got a "Buy Local" sticker in every shop downtown. I know they're only stickers, but the message is a strong one.
Perhaps the chamber ought to reach out to the group to help broadcast it.
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1 comment:
Tom, thanks for your vote for our Buy Local campaign. It’s difficult to find fault with the concept!
We had approached the Chamber last spring about co-sponsoring additional buy local efforts. We presented a neat little package of ideas based on what other communities are doing, and then Ann Ormond presented our proposal to the board. From what I understand the board approved the concept, but that was the last we heard from the Chamber.
We believe a buy local campaign co-sponsored by the Chamber would go a long way to balancing out the perception that the organization solely focuses on markets outside of the community, and would build bridges with the non-business owner community.
We still hope a partnership is possible.
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