Culpeper, Virginia just received some good press after it unleashed its new shop local campaign, Be a Culpeper Local.  The campaign combines educating the nearly 50,000 Culpeper County residents on the value of buying locally with a website, beaculpeperlocal.com that directs visitors to local shopping and dining options, specials, and a way to track how much of your state sales tax is being returned to local Culpeper general funds and school coffers.

This fiscal year, 2010–11, the County general fund expects to receive $4.5 million (part of which is allocated to the Town), and the school expects to receive $6.4 million. All these millions are from us spending our dollars in Culpeper County!

It may not need saying, but this same math works for every community in Virginia, from Abingdon to Winchester and everyone in between.  This is but one of many ways to  jumpstart a shop local campaign.  If you need more reasons to value shopping local, you can visit this page.

For more information on shop local campaigns and the value of shopping local, peruse our training archives page, visit the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies website or get in contact with the Virginia Main Street staff.