The Entrepreneur Friendly Committee of Pickens County, with the support of the Pickens County Chamber of Commerce and local government, will launch a new community economic program in September 2008. The article below is the first of many that you will see over the coming weeks and months. The full announcement will come on September 9th.
Shop Pickens First
By Don Martin for the Pickens County Entrepreneur Friendly Program
Dateline: Pickens County, Georgia, September, 2010
“The Pickens County Progress reported today that just 2 years into the Shop Pickens First program the ground swell of public support for the program had generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in fresh LOST, SPLOST & ELOST tax revenues to fund improvements in county services and facilities, produced hundreds of new jobs for county residents, strengthened scores of local businesses and attracted dozens of new ones. The economic engine for this great financial success story is not some local, state or federal grant or rebate; instead, the self sustaining program is driven by the purchasing decisions of individual county residents. Bordering counties are reported to be scrambling to find the source of their lost tax revenues.”
Sounds almost too good to be true doesn’t it? Fortunately, it is entirely possible and just like in the prospective story, each of us individually and all of us collectively can actually help to make this a reality. The bottom line is: Spend your money where you live and good things will happen there. Shop Pickens First is a new initiative of the E-Friendly Program launched in the County earlier this year. The Shop Pickens Firstprogram has the full support of local governments and the Pickens County Chamber of Commerce, but its success or failure lies entirely with the individual residents of the county.
The concept of the program is simple: whenever possible buy all the goods and services that you reasonably can right here in Pickens County. The money you spend in Cherokee, Dawson or Gilmer counties helps to support their businesses, provide jobs for their citizens and pay for their schools and county services. There are a lot of very detailed statistics to prove this point and in the coming weeks we’ll share some of them with you to help enforce how important it is to buy your goods and services locally. We’ll start with one simple fact. According to research compiled by the University of Georgia, Pickens County residents spent an estimated $316 million on retail products in 2005; however, they only spent about 82% here in the county. That is almost $57M spent in other counties. Those lost sales could have generated another $5M or so in local payroll and over $1,700,000 in additional local sales tax revenues.
You are going to hear a lot about Shop Pickens First in the coming weeks and months – there will be plenty of media coverage, special programs and discounts – but the program will only work if we each take it personally. The next time you head out of the county to buy something – stop and think for a minute and ask yourself “Where can I buy this locally?” You’ll be surprised at how often you know the answer – and if you don’t, pick up the phone and call the Chamber of Commerce – someone will help you find the answer.
Citizens helping Citizens – a whole community pulled up by its economic bootstraps – why it sounds absolutely Revolutionary. So start your own little economic revolution and Shop Pickens First.
