Florence Chamber begins campaign to keep focus on local shopping

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Article/Picture Credit: Joe Perry, Morning News

“FLORENCE — Jay Lavrinc wants people to start thinking about shopping local.

“We want them to think about shopping locally the whole holiday season but this campaign kicks off on Nov. 26 th ,” he said Tuesday.

Lavrinc is the director of membership relations for the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce and was referring to a campaign known as Shop Local; Shop Small that partners the chamber with American Express. Lavrinc and chamber staffers have been visiting a variety of businesses around town to give away promotional items and asking proprietors to use social media to spread the word about their business and the push to keep Christmas spending in the community.

 Small Business Saturday was launched on Nov. 27, 2010, according to American Express, to encourage people around the country to support local businesses. In 2011 the U.S. Senate passed a resolution in support of Small Business Saturday and in 2012, President Obama and elected officials in all 50 states championed the day. In 2013, 1,450 neighborhoods pledged to support it and in 2014, an estimated $14.3 billion was spent at small independent businesses on Small Business Saturday. In 2015, American Express said, 95 million people went out to shop at small businesses as the day was embraced as a holiday shopping tradition.

As the holidays roll around, Salty’s Surf Shop owner Joe Waters sees major retailers “spending so much money on advertising leading up to Christmas. And everybody is trying to get a piece of the pie, to go extra and beyond to capitalize on the Christmas season.”

He thinks the Black Friday weekend time frame favors malls and big boxes whereas smaller, independently owned stores such as his rack up the most sales in the two weeks leading up to Christmas.

“It cranks up around the 10 th (of December),” he said. “That’s our main business – the last 15 days leading up to it.”

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SCNow WebArticle – Florence Chamber begins campaign to keep focus on local shopping