PORT ANGELES — Next time you buy something — a pair of shoes, a car, a couch — consider the effect you’re having on the community.
If you live in Port Angeles and you choose to buy it there, you’re helping to boost your local economy; drive out of town or shop online, and you’re sending your money away.
That’s the message of a budding “Buy Local” campaign organized by PA Forward, a city-sponsored committee represented by volunteer Mike Edwards during Tuesday morning’s Port Angeles Business Association meeting.
Back in March 2009, Michelle Long of Bellingham spoke at Peninsula College on Sustainable Connections, an organization promoting the “think, shop and buy local first” ethic in Whatcom County. Sustainable Connections’ membership includes businesses, farms and community leaders interested in building up both economic prosperity and quality of life, Long explained.
Edwards, for his part, told the PABA members gathered over breakfast at Joshua’s Restaurant that “think local” initiatives have likewise been established in many cities — and Port Angeles is poised to reap the benefits of its own program.
PA Forward’s “local first” idea doesn’t apply only to downtown; the campaign would cover businesses across the Port Angeles School District, which stretches from the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation to the west to Blue Mountain Road to the east.
The program’s mission, Edwards added, would be to “encourage reinvestment in the local economy” via buying products and services here — not in Sequim, not at the Kitsap Mall, not on Amazon.com.
This “think local” campaign would include any and all merchants, Edwards said, adding that he and his fellow PA Forward committee members, who include Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers and City Councilman Don Perry, don’t intend to attack big-box stores.
“If you’re a business in PA, you’re more than welcome to jump on board with this,” Edwards said.
But Andrew May, almost immediately upon arriving at the PABA meeting, voiced his objections.
What about Sequim?
Sequim-area businesses such as the Dungeness Valley Creamery, Sunny Farms and Nash’s Organic Produce ought to be able to join PA Forward’s organization, May said; they’re also vital parts of the local economy.
“We have to worry about our own,” Edwards replied. “Port Angeles’ biggest competitor, in terms of money leaving our area, is Sequim.”
PABA President Kaj Ahlburg agreed with the Port Angeles focus, saying one “think local” goal is to prevent downtown from becoming “a ghost town,” with even more empty storefronts than it already has.
Keeping a store open — even if it isn’t locally owned, as in the case of the now-closed Gottschalks — is better than a deserted space, he said.
May still thinks Sequim merchants should be on the PA Forward map, even if Dungeness Valley Creamery milk and other local produce can be found at Country Aire Natural Foods at 117 E. First St. in Port Angeles.
“It’s crazy” to exclude Sequim, he said.
Edwards, though, forged ahead with his presentation, telling PABA members that PA Forward is in the “gaining support” stage of its effort to get people to “think local first.”
This means planning a public forum on the campaign, holding a membership drive to bring merchants on board and finding more advocates to help promote the initiative among businesspeople and the rest of the buying public.
Needing seed money
“We’ve created a budget,” Edwards said, “and we’ve looked for some seed money” from the city, though he declined to indicate the amount of either one.
Edwards and the other PA Forward members are volunteering their time, so the funding would go into promotional materials such as a “Top 10 Reasons to Think, Shop and Buy Local” list, a “Choose Local” PowerPoint presentation, a ChooseLocalPA.com website, window signs and fliers, stickers, buttons, loyalty punch cards and merchant maps.
All of this is about “keeping the image of ‘buy local’ in front of your customers,” Edwards noted.
PA Forward is “maybe two or three months from having a campaign out on the streets,” he said, adding that once the program is established, the business community could take over and run it.
A key goal, of course, is to keep Port Angeles’ “buy local” mind-set going, and growing, far into the future.
All of this will start with each resident spending money in — and on — his or her community.
“We want a more conscious thought given,” Edwards said, “to why you might choose to shop and buy locally.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.