Rowan Business Alliance extends their appreciation to the Salisbury Post for providing us with a reprint of the following article (published in December 2003) for use by RowanAlliance.com.

Maximize our Holiday Choices
By Jason Walser
The Salisbury Post

As we participate in the annual ritual of post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping, I want to take a few moments to reflect on how we can maximize our holiday choices for the benefit of Rowan County.

After hearing time and again how important it is to “Shop Rowan/Salisbury First,” I decided to investigate this issue, knowing that I wanted to help contribute towards recovery of our county’s stagnant economy in any way that I could. What I learned with only minimal research was so staggering that I was compelled to sit down and write this. I hope that you, like me, will consider how profound your holiday shopping, dining and recreating decisions truly are with regards to supporting the county in which we live.

If you haven’t, it promotes local services, businesses and agencies in Rowan County, including supplies, restaurants, retail stores, vehicles, architects, builders, recreational activities and financial institutions.

First, every time we purchase an item in Rowan County, we pay 7 percent sales tax. Most of this goes to the state. However, a full 1 percent comes back to the county where spent. While this 1 percent of your total purchase doesn¹t seem like much on a purchase-by-purchase basis, the cumulative effect of all sales over the course of the year represents more than 20 percent of the overall county budget, or approximately $20 million! In fact, it is second only to property tax collection in terms of revenue produced for this county. Thus, when we purchase our goods locally, we are directly supporting not only our local school children, senior citizens, parks, roads, etc.; we are also helping to keep our local property taxes down.

Of course, the flip side to the sales tax impact is that every time we buy something in Cabarrus, Iredell or Mecklenberg County, we are helping them build superior schools, provide better services, and ensuring that their property taxes stay lower than our own. It is estimated that there are currently several more tens of millions of dollars worth of sales tax being spent in other counties that, if brought back home, could almost single handedly build all of our school needs over the next decade without having to service bond debt. Think about that.

A secondary, and often overlooked, impact of shopping locally is what economists call the “multiplier effect” of our dollar. Simply stated, this is the undeniable fact that every time we support merchants in Rowan County, they pass that dollar on to other merchants in Rowan County. This is true whether you are talking about the employees that the merchants hire (most of whom also live and pay taxes in Rowan County), or whether you are talking about the merchants themselves (including the local banks they support, the local gas they buy, the local foods they eat at lunch hour, etc.).

Economists tell us that in a rural county like Rowan, the “multiplier” may be as high as six or seven. That is, for every dollar that you and I spend in Rowan County, it supports additional six or seven dollars of expenditures in this county! Talk about the gift that keeps on giving.

A third and final impact of shopping locally is job creation. As we are faced with double-digit unemployment, we cannot overstate the need to provide jobs to this community. Whether you are buying a good book in Downtown Salisbury, or some barbecue in China Grove, your dollar directly and immediately impacts the ability of the merchant to support its employees. Obviously, every dollar spent in another county supports employment in other counties.

Unfortunately, we can no longer plead ignorance to the long-term consequences of our shopping habits. Almost too painfully, we have learned that our seemingly innocuous decisions to buy the cheapest textile products from China and Mexico over the past decades had very real consequences for our neighbors, friends and family here in Rowan County. We would never enter the voting booth without educating ourselves on who or what to vote for, or at least examining our own core beliefs. And yet, this is exactly what we are doing when we spend our hard earned money without regard for how it effects the communities in which we live.

If you really want to make an impact in this community this Christmas (and catch the true spirit of Christmas), you might even consider making a special contribution in honor of a friend or loved one to a charity or other non-profit organization operating in Rowan County. There are an abundance of groups right here in Rowan County that are doing amazing things every day for our neighbors in need, and for our own quality of life. Some of them even sell gift items that you can wrap up for your loved one. Sales of such items support their important work and help promote the organization, while still keeping dollars at home.

Before you rush off this holiday season to Concord Mills or Hanes Mall, I would encourage you to consider trying to fulfill your present-buying needs in Rowan County first. If you can¹t find it here, or it really is just too expensive ‹ even in light of the additional cost of putting $20 worth of gas in the SUV to drive elsewhere or pay shipping costs etc. -- then by all means load up the family for a trip to Charlotte, or just order off the Internet.

But remember, every time you spend (or charitably give) one dollar in this county, you are giving an additional Christmas present to the merchants, employees, citizens and taxpayers of Rowan.