Where do you shop? Is your first thought to head to the big shopping centre in Albany? Is your second thought to peruse online?
If so, then Mark Macky, deputy chair of the One Warkworth Business Association, would like a word with you.
Mark heads up One Warkworth’s “Buy Local” campaign, which aims to ensure people’s first thought is to think of shopping locally.
He says if they don’t, then people will eventually lose the convenience of shopping locally entirely, and at the same time lose a special part of being in a community.
This includes being able to walk into a shop and have the person behind the counter say “hi” and being in a place where good relationships are formed.
“We have some exponential growth ahead of us in the next 10 years, holding on to our sense of community and our sense of being a connected little town is going to be a challenge for us,” Mark says.
“Anything we can do to hold on to that sense of community and continue something that makes Warkworth special has got to be a great thing.”
So Buy Local was born in October last year, featuring ads in publications such as Mahurangi Matters, social media content and a series of witty billboards that got people talking.
Each featured some kind of mishap where buying local was offered as a solution.
One showed a picture of toes sticking out of a pair of dilapidated sneakers. “Need new shoes? Buy local.” Another pictured a man with a blackened face holding up an electrical cable. “Need a sparkie?
Buy local.” Most controversially, a dad amid a family argument featuring bawling children was captioned, “Need a vasectomy? Buy Local.”
Mark admits there were a few complaints about that one.
Nevertheless, he received a ton of anecdotal feedback that people were wandering back into shops and making a point that they were there because of the Buy Local campaign.
Even so, One Warkworth does not want to lose any momentum and will be rolling out a fresh campaign in the coming months.
“I think we have started the discussion and the debate, but we still want to make more noise around it,” Mark says.
