By Elizabeth Cook
ecook@salisburypost.com
How about a local economic stimulus plan?
One that will cost you only $20?
The Salisbury Post is launching an initiative to boost the local economy by encouraging readers to spend $20 at a local business on July 20.
The Rowan County Chamber of Commerce and the city of Salisbury are partnering with the Post on the event.
You could make a purchase you’ve been putting off, go out to eat, get a haircut, take in a ball game. The list goes on.
The money will ripple through the economy ó local money helping local businesses.
The Post can’t claim originality here. The “$20 on the 20th” campaign has had good results in other communities in recent months, including the home of one of the Post’s sister papers, the Aiken Standard in South Carolina. The Standard launched its first campaign in April and repeated it in May.
“We had great success from it,” Aiken Standard Managing Editor Michael Gibbons has said. “One of the intangible positives was the change in attitudes around town.”
From Ellsworth, Maine, to Valdosta, Ga., and Abilene, Texas, several newspapers and business groups held “$20 on the 20th” promotions in their communities in June and reported positive results.
Spending $20 that you wouldn’t otherwise be spending on the 20th is a modest proposal.
But, as the Athens (Tenn.) Banner Herald put it, “at least it’s something, and, what’s more, it’s something that’s within the reach of most of us.”