‘Buy El Paso Day’ encourages El Pasoans to shop local for the holiday shopping season
EL PASO, Texas -- Saturday was "Buy El Paso Day." It was part of the Better Business Bureau Paso Del Norte's 'Buy El Paso' campaign.
The campaign was created with CARES Act funding when the pandemic first started as an effort to promote local businesses and engrave the importance of shopping small.
With the holiday shopping season in full swing, the BBB wanted to create a day that encouraged El Pasoans to buy local with a fun incentive. Restaurant and retail businesses apart of the campaign gave free mercado bags to people who chose to shop local on Saturday.
“Buy local campaigns have been around for a long time," said Marybeth Stevens, president of the BBB Paso Del Norte. "But really wanted to start getting people to think about it’s not just the owners of the business, it's all the people that they employ, then the owners buy things from all the local business to help their stores. The ripple effect is huge.”
“It's always been engraved in El Paso to want to support us but I think this is a really organized push a really organized way of doing it," said owner of Birkenstock Attitudes in west El Paso, Paul Novoa.
Businesses who are apart of the campaign had to take the City of El Paso's Pledge to Safety, like Birkenstock Attitudes.
“When people come into local boutiques like (Birkenstock Attitudes) there's a good chance that owners like me are going to be here," Novoa said. "We want to keep our customers safe, our employees safe."
As businesses work to take care of their consumers safety, the campaign's goal is, in return, to take care of them by shopping local especially during the holiday season.
“When you buy El Paso you, 'heart' El Paso and we hope everybody keeps that in mind through the whole holiday season and forever," Stevens said.
With CARES Act funding ending at the end of the year, Stevens said the BBB Paso Del Norte is working to figure out how to continue the momentum of the campaign and make it long term.
This weekend, El Paso Inc. subscribers will receive a free Buy El Paso Holiday Gift Guide with their printed edition.
To discover business who are apart of the Buy El Paso campaign, click here.
