Recently, 30 year resident and champion of Carrboro ‘Jackie Helvey’ did a WCHL Commentary about why she ‘Buys Local’.  Hear it from the boots on the ground as to why supporting local businesses will benefit the community.

Listen here

Why use a $2 bill? To symbolize that it takes 2 to make a difference. The bills are uncommon, so people are apt to examine them more closely. The hope is that people will take a moment to think about where their cash is going, and realize that spending it locally has more power and impact to their local economy.  This idea was in part inspired by a small town pharmacist named Danny Cottrell in Brewton, AL who gave his employees a bonus in $2 bills but with the stipulation that they spend it locally.

So how can you participate?

If you are a consumer – spend the $2 bills at local businesses! If you are a business, now is the time to get involved.  First you will need to get some $2 bills.  Most banks have some on hand, some banks require you to order them ahead of time. Next it will help if you denote the bill with a stamp of some kind.  Some merchants have copies of a LocalMotive stamp and can also point you in the direction of making your own stamp if you like. Is it illegal to mark a bill? No, it’s not illegal. As long as the currency is not made illegible or invalid, then it is not defaced. It is with care that a small marking is placed in the margin or white space to encourage circulating the bill locally.

There are 2 files you can download to hand out with each $2 bill. You will need the “What” and the “Takes 2” pdf file.  They need to be printed on both sides of the paper, cutting them out, they nicely wrap around the bill helping to draw additonal attention to the bill. 

Finally, put the bills in your cash registers.  Hand them out as change to your customers.  Often people are very excited to get them and even start planning on where they are going to use it next. 

 Are these bills staying local? Where’s George is a free service devoted to the tracking of currency.  You may have seen bills in the past with a stamp urging you to go to the “Where’s George” website.  We are urging people to enter their $2 bills to see how long they stay local. If you find a bill with a “LocalMotive” stamp on it, visit Where’s George to see where it’s been.

LocalMotive has reserved a spot in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro 2009 Holiday parade that will be happenig this Saturday, December 12th.  This is a great opportunity for Carrboro locally owned businesses to have some visibility and to share with the public why it is important to support locally owned businesses.  This will be fun too!

We will be carrying a banner (possibly attached to a catamaran tandem bike) that has the ‘LocalMotive logo on it, and we will be handing out postcards with the top ten reasons for supporting local businesses.  We would also like to have some walkers carrying ‘top ten’ signs, behind the ‘localmotive.’

We encourage local business representative to wear t-shits with their business logo on it or carry anything that helps identify their business.  Business handouts are allowed, but must also be distributed with LocalMotive postcards.

We will be meeting at Morehead Planetarium, this Saturday, December 12th,  beginning at 9:00 A.M (You can arrive — the latest at 9:45 am)  The parade begins at 10:00 AM Sharp!  The parade ends at the Carrboro Town Hall.

PLEASE RSVP ASAP!  We need to know how many people will be participating.  Neal’s Deli will be donating biscuits  and we need to let him know our order;  Thanks Neal!  Also, Sharon Collins from Ballons and Tunes will be donating ballons and we need to know how many to get;  Thanks Sharon!  

Please reply to Sammy Slade  sammy_slade@hotmail.com

When you shop locally, you give a gift that gives back to the community

Buy Carrboro Week – Dec 5th – 12th

Did you know that each dollar you spend locally, gives 3 times more value back to your community than the same dollar spent at a national chain?

UNC School of Journalism student run online news site The Carrboro Commmons recently did a story about us.

New business group launches Buy Local Week

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, a new organization will launch its first project in an effort to help build the business community and encourage Carrboro’s residents to shop locally.

Caption: LocalMotive members Brian Russell, Jenny McMillan, Mike Maher, and Terri Turner gather inside McMillan’s home and gift gallery, Nested. The four are part of a new group aiming to help build the business community and encourage community members to shop locally. (Photo by Alison Shay)

Buy Local Week, Dec. 5-12, will mark the first project by Carrboro’s new group, LocalMotive.

What started out as a core group of three or four people has developed into a nine or10 person steering committee, which Jenny McMillan, owner of Nested, said continues to grow.

McMillan said one goal of LocalMotive is to give business owners and community members the opportunity to get to know each other face-to-face. She and the other members of LocalMotive will work toward building a business community.

“We really want to create a support network for businesses,” McMillan said.

Lots of great stories about the people of Carrboro on this site. Highly recommended!

This meeting is to bring people together to hear about who we are and how we are different from other local groups
what we can do for each other, and how you can be involved in a new BALLE chapter in Carrboro.

Our mission is to provide a supportive atmosphere for local businesses and educate the local community on the importance of shopping locally. We will begin with a meet and greet at 7pm at 7:30 we will have a short presentation on BALLE and then discuss upcoming initiatives:

• Holiday Parade Float to get the word out Buy Local Week Nov 29-Dec 6, 2009
• $2 bill stimulus project
• Quarterly networking events
• Cooperative advertising efforts
• Group coupon pages, town passport, directory of local businesses

Bonus meeting with Michael Shuman, economist and author of “The Small Mart Revolution” on Monday morning at 8:30am at Open Eye Cafe for an informal discussion on strengthening local economies.