“Think Local" Initiative Moving Forward, Seeing Progress

The Western Springs Business Association, or WSBA, is just over four months removed from the beginning of its shop local campaign and the business community is already starting to see progress.

The campaign officially began on March 22 at Whiz-BAsh. Under the tagline “Think Local, Spend Local, Be Local,” the shop local campaign focuses on linking business together and then helping connect them with the community.

Lynn Anne Gantt is the public relations coordinator for the , chair of WSBA’s marketing committee, and a contractor who helps spearhead the shop local campaign.

“The idea was that we were going to start with the businesses first and do some education, get some buy in, get the businesses to start talking to each other about being more proactive in the community," Gantt said.

Since the campaign’s inception, WSBA has overhauled its publicity in order to achieve these goals. It created a Facebook page, designed a new logo, worked to get stories published about the campaign in local news sources, helped with signage in association member stores, and hung banners around town advertising upcoming events.

An addition to the “Tower Topics” newsletter titled “Whiz-ba!” is a segment reporting what is new and interesting about the business association and its members.

“The response particularly to the village newsletter has been pretty good,” said Katie McMillan, owner of . “That hits every house in town every month to remind them to shop local.”

Gantt cites increased communication as the biggest success so far, as she has seen businesses working together, WSBA receiving more attention, and consumers giving useful critiques regarding the campaign.

However, McMillan said she has not seen an increase in business and the impact from the campaign is hard to describe so far. “It’s hard to say because we already have a very strong, loyal hometown crowd,” she said.

With financial data and sales tax data from Illinois not released yet for the year, there are no hard numbers that might begin to prove or disprove the effectiveness of the shop local campaign.

Yet, WSBA is focusing on more than just immediate sales increases. Gantt said, “One of the things that I think is really, really essential in the shop local: it really isn’t just about shopping. It’s about being a part of a community.”

Local businesses are already a large part of Western Springs, giving out scholarships, hosting events, and supporting non-profits, but WSBA plans on doing more.

Businesses are considering more support for recreation activities such as youth sports, women’s clubs, local theater, and garden clubs.  Gantt said, “I would say the next goal is to do more cooperative things with the community.

“I’m not just a business owner. I’m a lifelong Western Springs resident, as are many other business owners, and that’s very important,” said McMillan.