Media

Speech presentation – BUY MOWER, annual meeting

I’m not sure everyone can see this. What I have in my hand is a sales receipt. Many of us use such receipts at the point of sale. It’s a simple contract between buyer and seller. The customer makes a purchase and we give them a receipt along with the product or service they purchased. But this simple piece of paper, this simple receipt means much more.

What does a sales receipt mean to you and your business? When you think about it, it is everything. It’s our business’s lifeline. With the transactions these receipts represent, our business succeeds. Without them, our business fails. It’s as simple as that.

What does this receipt mean to our customers? It’s a symbol of trust. They give us their money, we give them the products and services they purchased, along with a receipt that outlines the costs of those goods and services. If they’re dissatisfied for any reason, they bring the product back with the receipt for a refund. It’s their proof they have done their part by paying for the service or product purchased.

Taking this a little further, what does a receipt like this mean to our community? Receipts, such as this, symbolize economic activity. The transactions they represent build our community. They lead to payroll checks, provide funds for capital improvements, pay taxes, build our economy, our community. They represent capitalism, my friends, and prosperity. The more receipts we produce, the better off we are as business owners. The better off our employees are. The better off our community becomes.

This receipt represents all that and more. It also represents the central theme of the Chamber’s new marketing campaign, BUY MOWER, GROW MOWER. This receipt will be used as a tool to help us raise public awareness as to the importance of shopping locally.

The fact of the matter is we need–our entire community needs -- these receipts to succeed. And just as true, for several years now, we have not seen as much retail activity in our community as we could have…no, should have. For years now, Austin and all of Mower County has been losing retail sales to other communities. Lots of sales.

Collectively, the University of Minnesota estimates Mower County businesses have been losing more than $130 million in taxable sales, each year! Include non-taxable items, and the number is even more staggering. The impact on our businesses and our communities is huge. The U of M estimates it is comparable to losing more than 16,000 residents, county-wide. Think about that! Sixteen thousand residents gone!

That’s a big problem. The Chamber wants to address it, reverse the trend, and start bringing those residents, our customers, back.

BUY MOWER, GROW is a public relations campaign, designed to not only raise awareness as to the problem, but also how everyone benefits when people shop locally. We’ll use sales receipts as a visual link as to how dollars flow through our community, helping to GROW our towns by providing MORE opportunities for everyone in Mower County.

We’ll note how local businesses, supported by local purchases, give generously to charitable causes that enhance everyone’s quality of life.

We’ll note how local businesses, supported by local purchases, provide jobs for family members, friends and neighbors.

And we’ll note how taxes, paid by local businesses and generated through local sales, provide needed revenues for our schools, public services and important projects, such as flood control.

BUY MOWER, GROW MOWER will promote the benefits of shopping locally: Benefits that extend far beyond the retailer to all aspects of our community. It will show how dollars spent here, stay here to create jobs, expand our tax base and enhance our quality of life.

The campaign is not fully developed, but will be unveiled sometime this spring . . . hopefully this April. Jim Splinter of Hormel Foods has arranged for the advertising agency BBDO to help us fully develop the campaign, pro bono. For it to be successful, the community must “buy-in” to the idea that residents benefit when they support their local businesses. And we will need you, our business members, to buy into that message first by pledging your own support, promoting the theme in your stores, and asking your employees to pledge their support as well.

We’re not going to ask anyone to spend all their dollars in town. As a matter of fact, we’re only going to ask for a small fraction – just a 10 percent shift back to local businesses. Of course, we hope that percentage will grow. But even if we can shift 10 percent of the dollars spent out-of-town, back to Austin and Mower County . . . we will have made a $20 million impact on our economy.

To make it happen, all we have to do is commit to the ideal, embrace and support the businesses we already have, and reap the benefits. It all starts with a simple pledge to BUY MOWER. A trail of receipts will follow that will lead to more for everyone, and a better life for everyone in Mower County.