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-In today's fast-paced world, the convenience of online shopping and big box retailers often take center stage.

However, there is an increasing recognition of the importance of supporting local businesses.

Hello, I'm Julie Cooke.

On this edition of Tennessee is Talking, our topic is Shopping Lo.. Help foster your local community, preserve unique culture, and drive economic growth.

Let the conversation begin.

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-West Tennessee PBS presents Tennessee is Talking.

Let the conversation begin.

-Thanks for joining the discussion here on Tennessee is Talking.

Hello, I'm Julie Cooke.

Every purchase made from a local business has a ripple effect on t.. and sustainability of our communities.

Here to tell us more is the Executive Director of the Greater Gibson County Chamber of Commerce, Libby Wickersham.

Thanks for joining us.

Shopping local, that's been a lot of your focus for the past several years.

You've had this position, right?

-It sure has.

It's become more of a focus with our local chambers and.. and towns across the state and nation as well.

-I think so too.

A lot of the communities like Trenton, which-- Do you have a population for the city or the whole county?

Because you pretty much represent all of Gibson County.

-Our chamber covers the eight municipalities in Gibson County outside of Humboldt and Milan.

They both have their own chambers.

We have chamber members in Humboldt and Milan as well, but we cover the other eight towns.

Trenton and Medina are our largest towns that we cover, but we also cover all of the north end of the county as well as Bradford and Yorkville and Gibson and Rutherford, Dyer, Kenton, Trenton, and Medina.

-Your small businesses are pretty much the life force of your local economy.

-Yes.

They are, and they're the heartbeat of every town.

You say things all the time about asking that your small businesses are the ones that support your local little league teams and your high school basketball teams and your FFA, and that's the truth.

Those are the ones when you go to a fo.. or when you go to a baseball game or a tee ball game this summer, when you look at those signs on the outfield fence, those are going to be your local small businesses mostly.

We do have industry in the county that is real supportive of our school systems and of our communities, but on a day-in and day-out basis, it's our small locally owned businesses that keep everything going.

-I'm sure.

The percentage of money that's spent at local business that stays in the community, do you have an idea of that?

-Yes.

Of every dollar that is spent in Gibson County, 58 cents of that stays in Gibson County.

Especially during the holiday season, which we've just come out of, we focus a lot on shopping local and shopping small, but it really has become a year-long thing for us at the Chamber because we want to keep an emphasis on supporting our local businesses all year long.

One of the ways we do that is we talk about the fact that so much of.. that you spend in Gibson County will stay in Gibson County.

Even in our leadership programs, our youth leadership and our adult leadership programs, we really talk about that a lot, about the importance of even buying your gas in the county that you live in.

Most of the time, those are not going to be small locally owned businesses.

However, we do have several in Gibson County that are owned by individuals that live in Gibson County.

It's so important that you buy the gas that goes in your vehicle in the community that you live in because that money then funnels back into your school systems and it funnels back into road improvements in your towns.

You just think about the fact that getting that gas before you leave your community, before you take a trip, getting that at home, it keeps so much of the money right back in your own community.

-I think a lot of us are still-- I'm over in Crockett County, which is where I'm from in Alamo, and I can remember businesses all around the square and that's just where you did business.

Then when the bigger stores started coming along, you're going to say, "Oh, that's so much cheaper over there, so much cheaper."

My father, we had a business there in town and he said, you got to understand, this community is made of the smaller businesses and you might spend a little bit more on a local business.

That money stays right here.

That's what you said.

-That's right.

-I think so many of us have .. to shop to save money.

Now we're trying to get back full circle again where we support these mom-and-pops.

You have a change of mind about it.

-You do.

There's a difference in shopping local and shopping small.

We really focus on shopping small on Small Business Saturday, which is always the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

We really focus on our small-owned businesses because we want you to remember those during your holiday shopping.

Don't leave them out just because you see all the fancy Black Friday deals or whatever they're doing at the big box stores.

Shopping local is important, too.

Even though you might have a Walmart in your community, it's not a small business.

It is still a local business.

Those tax dollars do still stay in your county and in your community.

You're right, communities are built on the small businesses, the family locally owned businesses that are downtown.

Not just downtown anymore, because so many of our towns have bypasses that everybody thought would just kill the towns.

Although there were growing pains with those bypasses, there are so many different programs that have come along to help revitalize our downtown areas to keep them thriving.

Some of our towns have gone through those programs and gotten different enhancement grants that have attracted businesses back to the downtown area so that those are back up and going.

We're seeing a lot of movement into the state of Tennessee and even into Gibson County from people moving from different parts of the country.

A lot of those have come from places that they're used to being able to walk.

They walk to the coffee shop or they walk to get something to eat.

We're seeing those kinds of people that want to live in downtown areas where they can walk.

I think that has attributed to some of our local businesses, our small businesses, coming back to life in our downtown areas.

-I think you're right.

It just goes to show with the-- I don't want to say the downfall, but with the decline of the larger malls, people like staying in smaller spaces.

They like shopping in smaller spaces where things are more convenient.

-They do.

I think one of the big things with our locally owned, especially our small locally owned businesses, is that there's a sense of community there.

You know the people that own that store.

In so many cases, it's the same family that's owned that store or that business for generations.

If you've grown up in that town, you've grown up with that business.

You're comfortable with them and, you know you can go in and get personalized shopping and get customer service that you might not get in a larger big box store.

-One of the things, of course, in the smaller areas, and you know this is true too, when you have a shower or somebody, when they're having a baby or getting married or something, and you call the store and say, this is going to so-and-so's house for the bride and tell who it is.

They put your name on it and they send you a bill or you can pay for it over the telephone.

-That's right.

-You have those smaller things that we just grew up, just took for granted.

I think what gets me is the lack of the larger stores to shop at now.

Sometimes I think that sometimes you have to shop online.

You think about sending things back and how much you go through and you don't know sometimes your sizes and all.

I'd rather be able to go into a store.

-Me too.

I want to be able to touch something .. -You need to get it back when the texture is not quite right.

I don't do that much.

Some things, it's just the way people are geared now, the larger shopping areas are just not with us like they used to be.

-No.

They're not.

-Your job, I would guess, just so during those busy shopping seasons, you have to promote that small business all the time.

What are some of the things that you do?

-One thing that we do to keep money in Gibson County when I came to the chamber almost 10 years ago now, we copied it from Crockett County actually and started a chamber cash program.

-Chamber bucks.

-Chamber bucks is what they call it in Crockett County.

We call it Chamber Cash in Gibson County.

Those are like gift cards that can be used at so many of our small businesses in Gibson County, in the area that I serve.

About 45 different businesses, I think.

That keeps money right in Gibson County.

We sell the most of those around the holidays for sure.

We sell that all year long.

Our school systems use it for teacher appreciation gifts and industries will use it to give gifts to their employees.

We sell a lot of it, just people coming in to buy it as a wedding gift.

It makes a great wedding gift because then they can use it to purchase something they didn't get off the registry, or they can go buy groceries with it, or they can pay their electric bill with it.

-I think that's how we do it on.. -Yes.

That's one thing that we do all year long to keep money in the county.

We try our best to promote our businesses all year and things that they have going on.

We started last year a shop local in September.

As I mentioned earlier, we do a lot of shop small in December, but we did a shop local in September.

That hit some of our businesses that weren't necessarily small businesses.

Some of our chain restaurants and businesses.

Again, that money stays in the county as well.

It's all just about promoting your businesses, encouraging people to shop there, to eat there.

Shopping local is not just buying goods.

we want you to eat in your local community as well.

Like I said, buy your gas, buy your groceries.

-Any of that.

One thing I've noticed working in advertising, a lot of times when the small businesses get started, I think especially initially you put so much into that business, into that renovation, and your costs are just building.

There's not a budget for marketing.

How does the chamber work?

I know in Madison, we have like a small business portion of the .. that helps with that.

Most people that I find that are just new to business don't have any knowledge of advertising, really how they need to go, what they need to use.

-How important it is.

-Just don't have a sense of how much it is.

I really can't spend that month after month.

I don't know.

They say, if you build it, they will come.

I'm just like, just because you build it doesn't mean they're going to come.

You got to blow your own horn.

That's not a sales thing that you've invested in your business and you've got to invest in getting the word out about it.

How do you deal with that?

-We partner with the small business association and by being a member of the chamber, you automatically get free access to the small business administration.

Their representative will come and meet with you and sit down.

If you need a marketing plan or if you need help with your business plan, they will walk you through that step by step.

A lot of our members don't take advantage of that.

We also offer sessions, courses throughout the year, lunch and learn sessions.

Sometimes those are online and we will work with different marketing agencies that have different things going on.

AI was a big topic in 2024.

It really hit the ground in 2024.

We had lots of sessions on using AI for your business.

We do selling your business during ups and downs during different times of the year, different types of promotions that you can use for your business using social media.

That's probably one of the most important ways right now that a business can advertise their business is all the different social media platforms.

Just making sure that our members know what's available to them and take advantage, especially of the free things that are offered to them.

-That's mainly your challenge.

As far as local businesses that bring jobs to Greater Gibson County, are you involved in recruiting?

I would assume.

-Yes.

We are constantly recruiting.

A lot of the times you don't hear about recruiting retailers or small businesses.

-This would be more industrial.

-We do.

We recruit those as well.

Most of the time, your national chains, they know more about your community than about your community.

If they're looking at coming to Gibson County, they already have all the numbers.

We can call them and we can court them and put on a dog and pony show for them.

At the end of the day, they have certain metrics that we have to meet.

If we don't meet those, then we're not going to be a good fit for them right then.

We have people all the time say, "Why can't we get a target?"

"Why can't we get Olive Garden?"

It's because we don't meet the metrics that they require.

As far as industrial recruitment, we're constantly recruiting for different industrial projects.

Even in some of our smaller communities have made really good headway into getting industrial land ready so that we can recruit those in.

With Blue Oval City, just down the road, we know we're going to be having suppliers that are going to need places to land.

When those jobs come, then those people come.

When the people come, then rooftops get added.

When rooftops get added, then we might meet those metrics that some of the national retailers are looking for.

Most definitely, your local owned businesses, if you add 30 more rooftops to a small town in the north end of Gibson County, a coffee shop that might not have been profitable last year, they've got a fighting chance this year because that's 60 more people every day that could come through their business.

-I'm sure you sat in on some of the talks about .. What is projected for Gibson County as far as any growth or needs for housing?

How are you connecting with that?

-There will be a need for additional housing.

It's not just a quick drive to Stanton for that project, but it's not a super long drive either.

We know that most likely growth that we see would come from suppliers that are going to need places to pop up and that are going to bring their business close enough to Stanton to be able to supply them.

-In the way of industrial or manufacturing.

-Those are the ones that we're going to more focus on because I don't think that we're going to see just a ton of growth of people working at Blue Oval.

We will see growth of-- -As far as warehouses or things like that.

-Warehouses and then supplies for Blue Oval.

Nuts and bolts and whatever.

All the things that they need that they're not going to make on-site there.

They're going to need to be close by.

-They'll still be close enough to transport- -That's right.

--easily for the distribution and whatnot.

Long-term, what are some of the things that you're looking at right now as far as growth or recruitment or small business that you would like to see say in the next couple of years?

-The main thing we want to keep the small businesses that we have.

We want to make sure that we're supporting them in such a way that they can continue to be successful.

Then we want to look at areas that we're missing.

Things that we don't have that our people need.

We can look at reports and say, what are they leaving Gibson County to go to Madison County for?

Maybe it's a shoe store.

Maybe we don't offer enough shoes in Gibson County.

If that's the case then those are the kinds of businesses that we recruit, that we try to pull into the county.

It's really important to me that our faithful businesses that have served the county, that have been there for generations that we don't step on them.

We bring in things to support them and to be an add-on to whatever service or whatever product they're offering.

That's the main thing is just see what we're missing and then try to pull those things in.

Then just make it an environment.

Making sure that our businesses that we have right now that they're offering the kinds of customer service that makes our people happy.

If somebody is thinking about opening a business, taking a chance on a downtown building, when they talk to the other stores, the other businesses around town that they get good feedback.

That yes this community does support us and we want to stay here long te.. -I have to compare this to Crockett because I know at one time there were a couple of lady shops and then when somebody else would come in, it would feel like a little bit threatening, I'm sure.

What has happened is there are more places to shop and with more places to shop, people will tend to come more and make that a stop because they know they've got more variety.

A group of the same kinds of shops will tend-- Am I right?

I think I've seen that.

-Crockett County is a perfect example of that with all of the boutiques and lady shops that they have because it then becomes a destination.

-Because you can stay in a small area and hit several different ones.

-A group of ladies might not have planned a half-day trip or a whole-day trip to Crockett County, now they can because they've got stores, not just in Alamo, they've got other stores.

We like to look at that.

We occasionally put together a boutique trail through Gibson County and just showing the different places throughout the county that people can make a day trip of it.

We're currently working with Adelsberger Marketing with our tourism group in Gibson County to create new marketing for the county.

One of those things is going to be experiences, things that you can do in Gibson County that you can come and spend a day or a whole weekend and where you can go.

Things that are fun for women.

If their husbands are coming for a hunting trip, then what would the ladies like to do?

Things that are good for just a girl's weekend, things that they can come and do.

We've got a lot of hidden gems in Gibson County.

We've got two wineries in the county.

We've got some really nice bed and breakfasts and Airbnbs.

Those things play in too.

-Getaway places.

-Yes.

People come from all over for those experiences.

We want our local people to take advantage of those too, but definitely make it an enticing experience so that we bring in tourists, not just visitors.

-Do you see anything for Gibson like-- I guess I'm thinking there's Discovery Park and Crocodile Safari Park and some large attraction like that.

Has that ever been discussed for Gibson?

-We would love that if we had somebody to come in like the Kirklands that put in Discovery Park.

He had a vision for his hometown and he made it a reality, but he had lots of money to make that happen.

We would love for something like that to come to Gibson County.

If somebody wants to invest there, we will welcome them with open arms and help make that happen.

-That would be great because there's so much around here like you said, that people aren't even aware of.

Little small spots.

In Brownsville, the Delta Heritage.

Every place has their little spot.

-We've got stuff in Gibson County too that people come from literally all over the world to-- -The Teapot- -To see the Teapot.

--in Trenton as always.

I love the place.

-We have people that come from you wouldn't believe, to see the Davy Crockett Cabin in Rutherford.

-Is that right?

-There are lots of tourist attracti.. We just want to make sure that people are aware that you can come and make a whole day of it or make two days of it and visit some different historical attractions, but shop and spend the money and stay there while you're here.

-That's good.

We've got just a few minutes left.

What is one of the things that you would really like to know?

I guess we've talked about people shopping locally and contributing to the local economy.

I want to mention again what impact that has on schools and roadways and things like that, how important that is to keep those dollars at home.

-It's very important.

Not knocking any of our neighboring counties, but we always tell people that if you choose to go over the county line and purchase your gas or wait until you get to a different town to purchase a cup of coffee, then those tax dollars and that money is going to go to that county.

It's not helping your child's school system at all.

It's not helping the pothole that's been in your road for months.

Those things don't just take care of themselves.

It takes money.

The way our small towns make money is by people buying stuff in their to.. -You just have to get in that mindset [?]

[crosstalk] -That you might pay a little more.

One of our businesses that has been in Gibson County for a long time, they always explain it as-- It's a hardware store, City Lumber in Dyer, and they explain that their products they're paid for.

When they purchase something from DeWalt or Stanley or whoever, they've got 15 or 30 days to pay for everything in their order.

When you go to a big box store, that stuff's all on consignment, basically.

That's why theirs might be a little bit more expensive than you could find at a big box store.

-Your money still stays at home.

-They can show you how to use it, too.

-That's right.

[laughs] We are out of time.

I'm so sorry, Libby.

For this edition of Tennessee is Talking, thank you so much.

Libby Wickersham is Executive Director of the Greater Gibson County Chamber.

For telling us about your homeland and shopping there.

I hope you'll re-watch this program or share it with a friend.

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