Southport-Oak Island
Area Chamber of Commerce
Promotes Shop Local Through The 3/50 Project
February
20, 2010 –
Southport, North Carolina (NC) -
It is a simple idea but powerful. We hope you will join us in
promoting it throughout our community. After reading the below
information we encourage you to go to the website and sign up. After
signing up:
1. Download the poster- put it
up in your window.
2. Download and print the
flyer- hand it to your customers and thank them.
3.
Email The Chamber and let us know you are participating.
If you want the Chamber to
provide you with copies of the handout
Email Us! Don't wait sign up today at
www.the350project.net.
Start spreading the word.
"Pick 3 Spend 50 Save your local economy."
Minneapolis, MN - March 19,
2009 --Having been an independent stationery store owner for
fourteen years, Cinda Baxter understood the pain felt by retailers
when the economy sank and consumers held back. What began as an
economic downturn in the autumn had become a psychological tsunami
by March 1st.
What the country needed, in
her opinion, was a meeting of the minds between two groups that held
valuable stakes in the game - small business owners and members of
their communities.
Enter The 3/50 Project.
With a tag line "Save your
local economy three stores at a time," the Project's goal is to
promote shopping in locally owned businesses while thanking
customers for the positive impact that decision has on a local
economy.
"We're constantly inundated
with doom and gloom," says Baxter, now a retail consultant and
professional speaker. "The system is broken, the banks are frozen,
the economy is bleeding. "That's all we hear. The images painted by
the media are ghastly and devoid of hope. What we need - what we
crave- as a nation is to pinpoint areas where positive change can
occur, then feel good about having promoted them."
By early March, she'd decided
enough was enough, and that it was time to give retailers ammunition
to fight back with. Rather than get tangled in complex messaging and
deployment, Baxter combined a straightforward theme, a free flyer,
and her blog as the mechanism to launch The 3/50 Project.
"We ask consumers to think
about which three stores they'd miss if they disappeared, then
remind them to return there," explains Baxter. "Shoppers have become
so rooted in thinking about the essentials that they've forgotten
about the little gift store on the corner whose owner remembers
their name."
"Fifty comes from the idea
that if even half the employed population spent a mere $50 per month
in a locally owned retail stores, those purchases would generate
more than $42.6 billion in revenue," she continues. "That's a huge
impact for a relatively small investment."
Which leads to a third number
on the flyer, sixty-eight- the dollar amount that remains in a
community's economy for every $100 spent in locally owned stores. By
contrast, only $43 per one hundred remains local when spent in
national chains; little or no revenue results from online purchases.
"In essence, the whole thing
boils down to 'Pick 3, spend 50, save the economy.' It's really that
simple."
Since ease of use was key to
store owners jumping on board, Baxter designed a free flyer for
participants to download, print on any color printer, then hand to
consumers with their purchases. "The idea is to look customers in
the eye, put this right in their hands, and say "thank you for
shopping in a locally owned store' rather than just pop these in the
bottom of the bag and hope someone sees them."
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