By ALISON SHAY
Courtesy of the Carrboro Commons
Just in time for the holiday shopping season, a new organization will launch an effort to help build the business community and encourage Carrboro’s residents to shop locally.
Buy Local Week, Dec. 5-12, will mark the first project by Carrboro’s LocalMotive.
“The goal of [Buy Local Week] is to encourage the community to at least consider doing their shopping in Carrboro,†Jenny McMillan says, “to realize that ultimately it’s for their good as well.â€
McMillan plans to use her store, Nested, a home and gift gallery, to highlight items made by local people. McMillan says another goal of LocalMotive is to give business owners and community members the opportunity to get to know each other face-to-face.
“We really want to create a support network for businesses,†she says.
Michael Maher, owner of Wootini, says it will be helpful for members of the business community to have a place to discuss issues. Although the members all have different voices and may think independently, LocalMotive will allow them to work together, and Maher believes people will see the value in that.
Terri Turner, the business manager of Weaver Street Realty, says she will act as an ambassador during Buy Local Week, visiting business owners to tell them about the group and get them involved. Turner, who “came here as a student and didn’t leave,†says Carrboro has a real sense of community.
This sentiment is echoed by Brian Russell, owner of Carrboro Creative Coworking. “All I have to do is walk down the street and meet all these people, and I feel so much more connected,†Russell says.
Russell’s business provides space and a community environment in which local people can work.
Russell, an active member of LocalMotive, is interested in developing strategies for communication (especially web-based), both between members of the business community and between businesses and other community members.
“I think it’s really important that everybody works together, no matter what group they’re part of,†Russell says. “We need to be really helping each other as much as we can.â€
McMillan says that research suggests that local businesses present a smaller tax burden to their towns, have a greater rate of giving to local causes and have more stable employee bases.
Other communities have created similar groups, and LocalMotive will be able to use those as models and adapt them to fit Carrboro’s needs. McMillan, and LocalMotive, want more people to get involved. No business is too small to play a role.
Although Turner doesn’t own a business, she wants to make sure Carrboro’s businesses are successful. She hopes LocalMotive will educate residents that they don’t have to shop out of town to find the goods or services they’re looking for, and believes the “foundation, energy and juice†is here for LocalMotive to be successful.
“If you buy locally, you’re giving back to yourself because you’re helping your community,†McMillan says. “It’s like investing in yourself.â€
The group is already discussing plans for the coming year. These include a local market during the holidays at which local artists could show the community what they have to offer.
LocalMotive will also participate in the annual holiday parade, scheduled to take place Saturday, Dec. 12. at 10a.m.
Alison Shay is a UNC student writing for the Carrboro Commons, a bi-weekly online lab newspaper for Jock Lauterer’s Community Journalism class at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.