Buying Local Has Many Perks

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Created on Tuesday, 13 November 2012 19:44

Written by Jessica Walsh

ST. JOHNSBURY - Downtown St. Johnsbury is full of small, family owned businesses that try to compete with their larger scaled competitors everyday. The towns Chamber of Commerce has taken notice of this, and has created a bit of incentive for the community to buy local.

The campaign, called Local First, was designed to educate shoppers on the benefits of buying local. Each time a shopper buys local, it will be marked on a card. After the shopper buys ten items locally, they will be put into a raffle to win 250 "Kingdom Dollars" that can be used at any local store.

"I think it is a great start and there is a lot of energy and momentum in St. Johnsbury right now," said Melissa Bridges who is a part of the towns Chamber of Commerce. Business's like the Artful Eye, Caplan's, Podo Shoes, The Frame Dames and Boxcar and Caboose are just some of many stores that are participating in the campaign. To keep businesses like these open, the community has to go out and spend money which is tough in economic times like these, but business owners are hoping that a little money will go a long way. St. Johnsbury is also looking at new ways for new business's to come to town as well. "It's going to make St. Johnsbury more attractive to more businesses to come into town which will add to the overall economy," said Bridges.

"The only way to grow businesses is through spending power. If we are talking about adding businesses and changing businesses and doing different things but the spending power doesn't increase, then it's really just a shell game. The way to encourage new businesses to open and expand is to increase the spending power in the community," said Scott Baker who is the owner of Boxcar and Caboose.

The campaign seems to be here at the perfect time when consumers are out and about holiday shopping. Local owners are excited about this holiday season and hope that its benefits last longer than this campaign. "People are excited, my costumers are very excited. It is just reinforcing that they feel good about supporting their local community and the merchants on the street," said Deborah Schein who is the owner of Podo Shoes.