PRESS RELEASE

101 East Kansas St. - Liberty, MO  64068 - P:  816.439.4415 - F:  816.439.4419 - W: www.ci.liberty.mo.us

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

DATE:           August 19, 2009

CONTACT:    Bill Taylor, Love/Shop Task Force member, T: 816. 407.7588;
E: william_taylor@prodigy.net

                        Sara Cooke, communications manager, T: 816.439.4415;
E: scooke@ci.liberty.mo.us

 

 

Citizen task force to launch "Consider Liberty First" campaign

 

LIBERTY, Mo. - When Liberty residents shop at the "Liberty" Target or the "Liberty" Wal-Mart or eat at the "Liberty" Chili's or "Liberty" Applebees, they are not really shopping in Liberty.

 

That also means their sales tax dollars don't support basic services IN Liberty such as police, fire, parks, road improvements and capital projects.

 

The Love/Shop Liberty task force, a subgroup of the Liberty... For All Implementation Committee, is working to educate Liberty residents as to the benefits of shopping locally through its "Consider Liberty First" campaign.  With 20/20 as a memory aide, the "Consider Liberty First" program encourages Liberty residents to redirect $20 in family purchases each week for 20 weeks to businesses IN Liberty from purchases currently spent outside of the Liberty city limits.  The initial phase of the program will run August 31, 2009 - January 16, 2010.  With the opening of three new restaurants in Liberty a family can easily achieve the 20/20 goal just by dining in the many excellent Liberty restaurants alternatives.

  

The Love/Shop Task force believes the program will: 

-         Bring new customers to all businesses - retail and service businesses - within Liberty city limits.

-         Increase frequency of sales

-         Improve sales tax revenue for the City

-         Increase opportunities for NEW jobs in Liberty

-         Encourage NEW business to locate in Liberty

 

The task force invites the media to a campaign launch at 8 a.m., Wednesday, August 26 at By the Book, on 4 N. Main St. 

 

In addition to the official launch, the task force will be working hard to promote the program and hopes Liberty residents will help spread the word.  The task force is scheduling presentations to the more than 20 civic organizations in the community; preparing email news blasts through a number of organizations including the City of Liberty, Historic Downtown Liberty, Inc., Historic Liberty, Inc., and Liberty Area Chamber of Commerce.  Recognizing the power of email and building on the theme of 20/20, organizers will be encouraging email recipients to forward the message on to 20 friends, family members or colleagues within 20 minutes of receiving the email. 

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