Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription.
Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. Please use the button below to manage your account.
The Piedmont Triad Partnership, economic development officials and chambers of commerce from across the area are teaming up in support of small businesses, offering a new challenge to residents called the #Triad Together Challenge.
The challenge encourages “friends and neighbors to spend more where it impacts more— in small businesses and restaurants in our community,” according to a release from the Piedmont Triad Partnership (PTP).
Among the participating agencies is the Alamance Chamber of Commerce. Mac Williams, president of the Alamance Chamber, said the county business organization got involved early on in the planning.
The #TriadTogether Challenge lays out the impacts of shopping small and encourages residents to support their local businesses during this tough time.
Times-News
Piedmont Triad Partnership, Times-News
“The genesis for it began with the organization the Piedmont Triad Partnership, which is a regional economic development group over in Greensboro,” Williams explained. “At a meeting of that board a couple of weeks ago, they were all talking about, ‘We’ve got to do something to help these small businesses, people and restaurants that are getting so impacted by COVID.’”
While many board members and chambers of commerce involved with the Piedmont Triad Partnership are focused in the Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point areas, Williams said Allen Gant, chairman of Glen Raven Inc., is a member of the PTP board and thus got Alamance County involved, spreading the challenge further into the eastern side of the Triad.
The #TriadTogether challenge seeks to “raise awareness and create a sense of urgency around the critical need to support locally owned businesses and restaurants, particularly in the absence of a COVID-19 vaccine,” according to the PTP.
An April poll conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce showed one in four small businesses in the U.S. was on the brink of closing down permanently. In North Carolina, 97.9 percent of businesses are small businesses, according to the PTP, and 46 percent of North Carolinians work in these small businesses.
With so many owners and employees in the state reliant on the success of small businesses, the #TriadTogether challenge seeks to highlight their struggles and encourage communities to make changes to their spending habits to keep these businesses going.
“The number one most important economic development strategy right now is to support our local businesses,” said Stan Kelly, president & CEO of the PTP. “Local businesses employ our neighbors, friends and loved ones and are a big part of what makes our community unique. Many small businesses are at risk due to the challenges of the pandemic and our support can be a difference-maker. By participating in the Triad Together Challenge and encouraging your friends and family to spend local, you can do your part to help businesses in our community not only survive, but thrive beyond the pandemic.”
As such, residents of the Triad are challenged to spend $100 or even $1,000 if they’re able at local businesses.
“So, whether you mask up to explore a local shopping event, pick up a curbside order, buy online, or purchase a gift card, local businesses want and need your business. Challenge others to buy local, too. Together, we can make a difference for our friends, family and the future of our community,” the PTP said.
For every $100 spent at a local business, $68 stays in the community, the PTP said. If 10 people spend $100, $680 stays in the community; if 10 people spend $1,000, $6,800 stays in the community and so on.
This graphic outlines the financial impacts of shopping locally and how much money stays in your community when you shop small.
Times-News
Piedmont Triad Partnership, Times-News
“There’s an element … going around challenging people to go spend $1,000 over whatever period of time they want to do it at these places and take a picture of yourself,” Williams said. “The idea was that if 10 people spend $1,000 and they send a letter to 10 people who spend another $1,000, pretty soon the money starts to add up. The idea is to support these small businesses and support them long enough for the vaccine to get out and to get people comfortable to get back out and for the restrictions to ease off.”
Participants in the challenge are encouraged to share photos of them eating, shopping or otherwise supporting local business online on social media using the hashtag #TriadTogether and to challenge friends and family to do the same.
Williams added that the Alamance County business landscape is heavily populated by small businesses, so the potential local impact of this challenge is high.
“The majority of businesses in this community are small and locally-owned businesses of all kinds and types. They employ a lot of people many of whom are friends and neighbors. We’ve got to support each other to keep our communities economically viable and our businesses economically viable until we get to the other side of this pandemic,” he said.
Williams noted that many of the organizations getting involved with #TriadTogether have already launched campaigns to support local businesses, including Alamance County, which has shared numerous updates and calls to action through the Alamance Strong blog.
“All of the chambers have been doing on their own, separately from the Triad challenge, something to try to raise awareness about buying local, supporting small business and that kind of thing,” he said.
The regional approach, however, adds more strength and unity to the challenge.
“By coming together as a region to launch the Triad Together Challenge, we can amplify these local efforts and have an even greater impact to help local businesses get to the other side of this crisis. Together, we can make a difference and demonstrate that we support these businesses and believe in their future,” Kelly said.
The challenge is not exclusive to the holiday season, Williams explained, but participants are encouraged to start the challenge now.
“It’s starting now because the holiday season is such an important time for these people from a revenue standpoint, but the idea is to continue it,” he said.
“Everybody has been feeling the challenge,” Williams added. “They’re trying to get by as best they can.”
