This weekend the Poplar Bluff Christmas Open House will be held to encourage shopping locally.
People who shop at any of the participating 15 stores on Friday or Saturday can register for a gift certificate at each.
Steve Halter, president of the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce, said the goal of the annual event is to promote spending money locally, especially during the holiday season.
“Consider shopping local versus buying things online or just shopping local along with buying things online,” he said. “Nobody’s naïve enough to think people aren’t going to shop online. They want people to think about throwing them in the mix.”
Participating stores include: Artfully Framed, Rustic Roots, Envy Boutique, Blue Relics & Revivals, Whitworth’s Gift Chest Jewelers, Hale’s Jewelers Bench, Bella Bee, La Boutique, Unit 4 Scrubs and Accessories LLC, Hillock’s A Man’s Store, New Leaf Flower and Plant Shop, the Blessed Nest, Blufftown Mercantile, Certified Southern and Pepper & Oliver.
While not all participating shops are chamber members, those that are will be broadcast on the chamber’s bulletin board and social media.
Halter said shopping local does two things, supports friends and neighbors and keeps money local.
“It helps with the local tax revenue, which in turn helps everyone,” Halter said. “The more money our city and county has, the more services they can provide.”
City manager Matt Winters agreed on the importance of shopping local to support resources made available though the city or county.
“Supporting local businesses and shopping local is vitally important to the City of Poplar Bluff,” he said. “We rely on local stores, the sales they make, and the sales tax they collect to function as your local government, to provide police protection, to provide fire protection and to maintain our city streets.
“Your local sales tax dollars also support the maintenance of the City Cemetery, the operation of the Poplar Bluff Regional Business Airport, the Margaret Harwell Art Museum and the Black River Coliseum.”
Along with shopping local, the event’s sponsors brought together $2,000 to split among participating businesses, Halter said. That money will be used as gift cards to the businesses.
Those who visit the open house events can register to win the gift cards.
Sponsors for the event are: the Daily American Republic, the chamber, the City of Poplar Bluff and Butler County Commission.
DAR Publisher Chris Pruett said this kind of event is especially important this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The annual Christmas Open House campaign has been very successful in recent years and we’ve added several new businesses to the program,” he said. “This is a way we can help locally owned businesses be successful during the holiday season. The past eight months have been extremely difficult for small business owners and this is a way the DAR and the other sponsors can help them finish the year strong. We encourage area shoppers to consider spending money with these businesses as they begin their Christmas shopping.”
“If they (the businesses) are successful, then our community is successful,” Halter said.