Keeping it local

Times Reporter

 

Anyone wandering through the streets and shops of Strathmore will see the same poster in many of the stores. The Strathmore and District Chamber of Commerce has started to launch a new campaign geared to keeping people in the community while boosting the local economy. Shop Local is the name of the campaign. The chamber would like to see people stay in Strathmore and take advantage of all the goods and services offered by the different businesses in town. 

“We’d like to see people buy in the locality rather than having to go to Calgary to purchase things,” said Charles Weissig, owner of White Corner Professional Cleaning. 

Any business in the Strathmore area can participate in the Shop Local program by promoting it with a poster in their window. Weissig said the best way is if they are able to take part in the coupon program. That way they can encourage people to shop at their business by offering them a break or giving them a service for a better fee than they would receive somewhere else. 

“We’re encouraging businesses to buy a coupon, put a coupon in the paper for a good rate or they could place a coupon on our website (Chamber of Commerce). They can buy a template and we can make up the coupon for them and put it on the web,” said Weissig. Jennifer Brooks, Community Futures Wild Rose, was contacted to request funding from the Business Vitality Initiative, BVI. The BVI was given $10,000 in seed funding to use for projects determined through an assessment done earlier in the summer. Three main initiatives came out of the assessment, and one of them was business friendliness. There was an advisory committee made up of four sponsoring organizations: the Town, Wheatland Business Women, the Chamber of Commerce, and Community Futures Wild Rose. The Shop Local campaign falls under one of the three main objectives outlined during the assessment. 

“It will hopefully find some funds to support the actual marketing efforts of the Shop Local program so that residents are encouraged to stay home and shop and support their local businesses,” said Brooks.  

“It’s a fairly quick process. We should find out fairly soon and we’ll be able to get rolling with the projects in the fall.” 

There is a deadline of December 31 for the funds allocated for the BVI, and Brooks said this is a project they can help get off the ground. The campaign hopes to launch on September 1, and Weissig said this will be an ongoing, long-term campaign.  

“We’d like to display these posters in as many windows as we can, as many places of business as we can and also to encourage the Shop Local program we would like as many as possible of the local merchants and businesses to participate in the coupon program,” said Weissig.  

Currently there are over 500 businesses in Strathmore and approximately 125 of them belong to the Chamber. 

“You may be surprised how many services are available here in town that people go away for because they are unknown,” said Weissig. The chamber also wants to encourage residents of Gleichen, Standard and other communities around Strathmore to shop local, in their own localities.