By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
The Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce wants you to “Buy Beaufort.”
No, not that Beaufort — Beaufort County.
The chamber is asking local shoppers to keep their dollars at home this holiday season in response to “Buy Local Beaufort County, NC.”
As part of the program, the chamber is selling gift certificates that are redeemable at participating businesses.
The chamber also is asking people to take the “Buy Local” pledge, which reads, in part, “I do hereby acknowledge that supporting local businesses directly benefits our businesses/organizations/entities and the citizens of our communities.”
“It’s about reminding people to shop local all the time, but especially in the holiday season,” said Catherine Glover, the chamber’s executive director.
“This is a time that a lot of our retail businesses need to do well for the year,” Glover added.
The program carries a goal of 1,000 pledges.
Asked to zero in on the economic benefits of buying local, Glover noted that Beaufort County has a sales tax of 7.75 percent.
Of that amount, the state keeps about 5.75 percent of the revenue, and the county gets back approximately 2 percent of every dollar spent locally, she said.
“The more sales tax we have, the more people that shop locally, the more money comes back to us,” which could help hold down the county’s property-tax rate, according to Glover.
Neighboring Pitt County has an 8-percent sales tax, “So you actually save money by staying in Beaufort County,” she asserted.
As part of the drive, next month Glover will go before the Washington City Council and the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners to request that the officials sign the “Buy Local” pledge.
Around 17 to 18 of the chamber’s 350 member businesses are participating in the program, which was launched two weeks ago, Glover said.
“It’s a new program, so it always takes a while to get it going,” she said.
Not all of the chamber’s 350 members are retail establishments, she noted.
One of the participating businesses is Charisma Boutique in Washington.
“Until I owned a store, I never really understood how important it was to try to keep the dollars in our town to keep it alive, basically,” said Jennie Jones, owner of the boutique.
The shop has been open for about a year, she said. Jones said she is fairly pleased with the amount of trade, but, “It could always be better.”
“I think the weather didn’t help very much,” she said of last week.
Jones said the program “can just kind of help remind people that there are places to shop in Washington,” and help them avoid a trip to Greenville.
Another participant is Harris Custom Home Electronics, also in Washington.
“We’re a small, local business, and we want people to come shop here just like we also want to support local businesses in town,” said Jennifer Harris, a co-owner. “We live in Washington and want to see it grow and develop.”
For more information, call the chamber at 946-9168.