The Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce is encouraging holiday shoppers to frequent Lakes Region retailers, restaurants, and service sector businesses this Saturday, Dec. 6, as part of its second annual “Shop. Eat. Save.” campaign.
The campaign, which does not discriminate between locally owned businesses and large chain stores, is designed to promote spending within the Lakes Region, according to Aimee Senatore.
“It means all businesses,” Senatore said. “It doesn’t mean we don’t want you to go to Home Depot. It just means, shop in your own community.
“The ‘Shop. Eat. Save.’ campaign is a buy-local campaign really trying to push people from outside the Sebago Lakes Region and inside to shop locally,” Senatore added.
The buy-local day, which the chamber is promoting with signage and advertising, is asking consumers to purchase both local goods and services.
On its website, the chamber is promoting deals on Dec. 6 at Dirfy Generators in Limington, Family Dental Health in Standish, Juliet’s Clothing & Accessories in Windham, Milliken, Perkins & Brunelle in Windham, Molly’s Cupcakes in Windham, Richardson’s Boat Yard in Standish, Sedona Wellness & Creative in Raymond, Tanorama Tanning and Cloth/The Tuxedo Shop in Windham, and Walgreens in Windham.
According to Senatore, the campaign is designed to promote all Lakes Region businesses – not just chamber members.
Tom Bartell, a member of the chamber and the executive director of the Windham Economic Development Corp., says the campaign is valuable because it reminds southern Mainers about the abundance of local shopping opportunities in the Lakes Region during the holiday season.
“As Windham Economic Development director, I want people to come shop in Windham,” Bartell said. “On a regional level, we definitely want people to come here and shop or stay here and keep your shopping dollars here. All of it supports local jobs and local employees.”
However, Bartell encouraged those who followed the campaign’s advice to specifically focus on locally owned businesses.
“Take a look at the local shops, the locally owned businesses and see what they have to offer, because a lot of times they’re overlooked in this season and we don’t want that to happen,” he said.
The buy-local campaign comes a week after the Nov. 29 “Small Business Saturday” national event sponsored by American Express. Senatore said she did not know how local retailers had performed during the weekend, which traditionally marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season.
At Buck’s Naked BBQ in Windham, the season kicked off slowly, according to manager Whitney Scott.
“It was definitely pretty slow this weekend for us,” Scott said. “I don’t know if it was weather-related or what.”
But for Robert Yates, owner of the Sears store in the North Windham Shopping Center, post-Thanksgiving sales were strong.
“We were ahead of last year,” Yates said. “Very successful weekend.”
As an economic development professional, Bartell said his job is to promote local shopping opportunities year-round. But the holidays present a special opportunity, he said.
“In this shopping season, it’s very important to get that word out,” he said.
Nathan Sawyer, left, and Dustin Jordan team up to tie a newly selected Christmas tree to the roof of a customer’s car at Studio Flora in North Windham on Tuesday. Businesses such as Studio Flora, one of many along the busy Route 302 corridor, are hoping the local chamber’s buy-local campaign adds to their holiday cheer this month. Send questions/comments to the editors.
