North County Chamber Urges Residents to Shop Local

The Greater North County Chamber of Commerce has set its sights at getting North County residents to spend their money locally.

The chamber has launched an awareness campaign called, “Shop Chamber First” with getting 400 of its members and the public to shop locally.

“The backbone of any community is strong schools, strong cities and strong businesses,” Chamber President Carolyn Marty said. “The mission is to promote the North County area and promote better community awareness.”

Marty also points out that shopping locally helps with keeping schools and the community strong.

Part of the campaign coincides with the release of the chamber’s annual directory, where residents will be able to pick up and find area retailers that they could frequent.

Sales tax has been a point of discussion in recent years as several municipalities in St. Louis County or pool cities, which is a system established in 1977 that allows a common fund for cities and shares are divided according to population.

According to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, a 10-member joint interim committee of the state Legislature will study the pool city system this summer.

At the heart of the chamber campaign is to really showcase the growing number of businesses available to shoppers in the North County area.

“Our members enthusiastically support the Chamber and its efforts to draw attention to the many excellent businesses in our community,” Marty said in a press release.  “Through this campaign we hope to reach tens of thousands of residents throughout North County and bring to their attention hundreds of businesses in their community which provide a wide spectrum of products and services.”

The chamber will publish 5,000 copies of the directory, which will be available at a number of locations such as City Halls and other area retailers. It will become available in July.