Shop Emery County and win prizes

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The Emery County Progress, Emery County, Emery County Economic Development Council and Ferron City are sponsoring a Shop Emery County campaign. Boxes are being placed in area businesses to gather entry forms to be entered into a drawing.
The drawing will take place close to Christmas. Prizes gathered so far include a flat screen TV, free family swim pass to the new pool, Millsite Golf Course free yearly pass, and two $100 gift certificates to be used at any business in the county. Any retail business, home business, city or industry can get involved by donating a prize for the drawing or money to be used to purchase prizes.
If you would like a box at your business call the Emery County Progress at 381-2431, the boxes are still being delivered and they don’t want to miss anyone who would like to participate.
Lou Sansevero is the chairman of the Emery County Economic Development Council, “In 2004 annual “sales leakage” north (the amount of money spent by county residents outside the county that could be spent in the county) was about $35 million dollars, thus far in 2008 that leakage has been about $16 million which on the surface seems like progress but my belief is that the reduction in leakage has been forced by various economic conditions not the least of which is the high price of gasoline. My concern is that, in the last two months, crude oil has dropped by 2/3 and price of gasoline has dropped by more than a $1 a gallon and is continuing to drop and that this ‘cheap’ gas portends a resurgence in sales leakage to the detriment of our local economy.
“The ‘Shop Emery County’ campaign is an attempt to remind county residents that many of the goods we ‘go north’ for are available from our local merchants at competitive prices and we are offering incentives to shop local. I hope Emery County merchants see the value in our campaign and become participating merchants and that residents patronize those participating merchants. People need to remember that every dime they spend in Emery County supports an Emery County family,” said Sansevero.
Mike McCandless is the Emery County Economic Development Director, “Shop at home campaigns are important because they get both the business owners and the patrons excited. Business owners sometimes are so busy just making their business run that they don’t have time to show appreciation to their customers. It is easy for both patrons and business owners to take each other for granted and I think programs like this get everyone refocused.
“Retail sales are extremely important. Sales tax is one of the most important sources of revenue for our small cities to operate on. As a result, when residents shop locally, it not only benefits the owner and employees of a business, but it helps to build the entire community,” said McCandless.
Emery County Progress editor, Patsy Stoddard said, “I realize there are some products and services that aren’t available in a county as small as ours as far as the size of our towns. We don’t really have a large, central town in our county, but several small towns which offer similar services. I think it is important to support our businesses as much as we can. These businesses provide jobs in our small communities and important tax revenues for our city and county government. We are hoping the prizes will encourage people to keep their dollars in their county as much as possible. I realize people like to shop and our county doesn’t offer a lot of shopping opportunities. It’s fun to travel and dine out or shop. But wherever possible let’s be supportive of others in our community,” concluded Stoddard.