Chamber Promotes Program To Shop Locally in Lenoir County
business, chamber of commerce, retail, shopping,
TLC is usually an acronym for Tender Loving Care, but it means something more in Lenoir County.
The Kinston-Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce has launched a program called Think Lenoir County – or TLC – to get residents to think more about shopping in this community. The chamber has even set up a Web site, www.thinklenoircounty.com, to help promote the initiative.
“With the current national economy and challenges, individual communities are finding ways to improve their own economic situation, and the TLC program has become a big priority for us beginning in 2009,” says Laura Lee Sylvester, president of the Kinston-Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce. “As a result, we are asking residents to do as much of their shopping as possible in Lenoir County and its three larger municipalities of Kinston, La Grange and Pink Hill.”
Sylvester says the main reason for shopping in Lenoir County is to keep sales tax dollars here. Those sales tax dollars go toward funding road construction, parks, schools, schoolteachers, fire departments, police departments and libraries.
“If a local resident goes out of town to purchase a car or even a pair of jeans, they are helping to fund that other community’s schools, fire department, roads and libraries,” she says. “But our TLC campaign is beginning to have an impact. People who matter-of-factly shopped elsewhere in the past are starting to conscientiously shop in Lenoir County. They are realizing that their seemingly small act helps to create local jobs, allows businesses to expand and attracts new growth.”
Sylvester adds that when the TLC idea first surfaced, the chamber approached the governments of Lenoir County, Kinston, La Grange and Pink Hill to find out how much the sales tax dollars mean to each entity.
“When all the numbers were added up, more than $12.2 million in sales tax money comes into this county each year, but it could be much more,” she says. “We are centrally located between the major communities of Greenville, New Bern and Goldsboro, and some people think they need to travel 20 to 30 minutes to these cities to satisfy their shopping needs. That certainly is not the case nowadays – all the necessities in life can be found right here in Lenoir County.”
Sylvester says she has been promoting TLC wherever possible, including recently introducing it to a Young Professionals of Lenoir County group that was established in 2008. The Young Professionals features anyone ages 21-39 who wants to network with each other in order to advance their individual careers, and one of the group’s missions is to be more involved in the community – including shopping here.
“Any resident or business owner is welcome to stop by the chamber to get a free, window-friendly, car-friendly TLC sticker,” she says. “The program has many advantages, including the fact that it saves gas and it shows loyalty to local businesses. So whenever you think about shopping, please keep Think Lenoir County in mind.”
Story by Kevin Litwin
