Campaign looks to keep dollars local

During the next few weeks, county store owners will be gearing up for a campaign to transfer money from local pockets to local checkbooks.

The Orange County Chamber of Commerce recently worked with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce to create the Buy Local campaign, which will encourage Orange County residents to only shop at county businesses.

Aaron Nelson, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce's executive director, said the campaign is necessary because of a recent study stating that Orange County residents are more likely to shop outside the county than in it.

"When people spend their money locally, it comes back to the community because it generates the sales tax dollars that pay our teachers, hire police officers and pave greenways," he said.

Nelson said the two chambers soon will begin telling local businesses about the campaign by mailing them information and providing them with window stickers that read, "Spend it here. Keep it here."

He said that even if the campaign can persuade just a few people to shop only in the county, it still will generate a lot of extra money.

"There are $1.2 billion worth of retail sales in Orange County right now," he said. "If you can move that by just one percent, that's $12 million."

Chuck Helpingstine, owner of Johnny T-shirt on Franklin Street, said he will be more than willing to participate in the campaign.

"I think it's a pretty easy concept," he said. "But people just don't tend to think about it a lot."

Helpingstine said he's convinced that most people will go along with the campaign if they understand the positive effect it will have on the local economy.

"If they knew about that, and it wasn't an inconvenience, I think most people would only shop locally," he said. "I think they just need the reminder."

But Helpingstine said he thinks it will take widespread participation among county businesses to make the campaign a success.

"One store saying, 'buy locally' isn't going to do anything," he said. "It's only going to work if everyone takes part."

Ted Conner, Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce's vice president for economic development, said he is not concerned about Orange County's new campaign, because similar campaigns are common.

"It is an admirable program," he said. "Several chambers have done things like this before and several are currently doing it."

But Conner said campaigns like Buy Local have one problem - that a county might not have everything a consumer needs.

"What it comes down to is making sure that the consumers in the community have a range of viable choices and a total range of opportunities to go buy all the products they want," he said.

Conner said he's not sure if Durham will launch a similar campaign to combat Orange County's.

"I'll leave that choice to our new presidency," he said. "We've done it in the past, but time will tell."

 

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