NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — The National Retail Federation predicts holiday spending will be up around 3.8 percent to 4.2 percent this year and New Smyrna Beach is trying to get some of those dollars this holiday season.
For many local brick and mortar stores, the holiday's is an important town. The owners of the The Florida Local, and artisan market and coffee shop, are hopeful for their very first Christmas season as a story.
“The more that you go and you buy things from these local stores, its just investing back into your community," said Alonda McCarty, a co-owner. "You know we give donations to the local football teams and local elementary schools, those types of things and then we turn around and either eat locally or shop locally too so its nice to be able to keep some of that revenue and investment here versus sending it off to one of the large corporations that you could purchase from.”
That’s why the mayor is launching a new #PutNSBUnderYourTree social media campaign, hoping to motivate people to shop in stores right in town.
“The buying local movement is broad and I was looking for something that is more of a local call to action that brought that all the way down to New Smyrna Beach,” said Russ Owen, the mayor of New Smyrna Beach.
While the National Retail Federation forecasts only 23 percent of shopping this season will be done in local stores, as opposed to 56 percent online, store owners in New Smyrna say they haven’t felt that so far.
“We’ve already had lots of people shopping, we had several ladies in the other day that had great big piles and they were throughout the whole store and they were Christmas shopping," said Cheryl Lorenz, owner of the Posh Pineapple.
Some believe the campaign is helping.
“We have had some people already online using the tag line "Put NSB Under Your Tree" and I think it also gives people an opportunity that live locally that maybe don’t know about all these small businesses and the unique things they have," said McCarty.
The mayor hopes it starts a trend that continues well after all the decorations come down next season.
“My hope is that we see increased sales over the holiday season, but then year-round that folks remember to always shop local," said Owen.
The campaign was only launched just over a week ago. The mayor expects it will ramp up even more with all the holiday events planned, which you can find on the Christmas on Canal site.