Albany Area Chamber set to unveil $15 on the 15th

ALBANY — The Albany Area Chamber of Commerce will unveil the next phase of its ongoing “Think Local” campaign May 15, and businesses in the community should reap the benefits.

The Chamber’s “$15 on the 15th” campaign is pretty self-explanatory: Every shopper in the community is encouraged to make a concerted effort to spend $15 specifically at local businesses on the 15th of each month.

“What we’re encouraging everyone in the community to do is look at our local businesses before looking online or shopping in another city,” Chamber Director of Membership Mary Bickerstaff said. “Certainly we encourage everyone to shop at locally owned businesses, but with $15 on the 15th we’re asking everyone simply to shop at a business within our community. The idea is to keep our money local.”

Bickerstaff points to findings from the Civic Economics Andersonville Study of Real Economics, which indicate $68 of every $100 spent at an independent business within a community returns to the local economy.

Chamber Director of Communications Rachelle Bitterman said the campaign is an attempt to change the mindset of local shoppers.

“People in Atlanta will shop in New York, people in places like Albany and Macon will shop in Atlanta, and smaller communities in our area come to Albany to shop,” Bitterman said. “We want to change the mindset that there’s something better, something that you can’t find locally, in another city. Ninety-nine percent of the time, if you really shop around you’ll find everything you want right here in Albany and you’ll usually pay less.”

As part of the $15 on the 15th campaign, officials are asking shoppers to take selfies and post them on the chamber’s Facebook page and share them with their friends. Bitterman said shoppers looking for ideas on where to shop can find a list of businesses participating in the Think Local campaign on the chamber’s website.

The chamber communications director said the chamber will continue to roll out different elements of the Think Local campaign periodically to “keep the concept fresh.”