Chamber president touts benefits of shopping locally

By Editor | March 7, 2018 |

Like others who have served in the position before him, this year’s president of the Greater Fayette County Chamber of Commerce urged chamber members, and all local residents, to shop locally as much as possible.

But Joe Schaal did more than that – he gave one of the main benefits of using local businesses.
Schaal said that right before Christmas, he went into NAPA Auto and Truck Parts to buy a taillight. While there he saw a flyer that included a sale on a backup camera for a vehicle.
But, he learned, that sale had expired the previous week.
“Ken (Torbeck, NAPA owner) called me three weeks later. He had called all of the NAPA dealers around and got me one at the sale price,” Schaal said.
“You can’t get that on Craigslist, you can’t get that on Facebook, you can’t get that service that you have locally.
“So, in the age of Amazon and online shopping,” Schaal told chamber members, “we need to steer people to our fellow members and support their businesses while promoting our own.”
As he prepared his speech for the chamber’s annual banquet, Schaal said, “The word ‘change’ always came to mind.” But the idea of ‘turning the page’ was to be his focus
One change is the name, to Greater Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, and, Schaal said, “We need to embrace that change.
“I’d like us to be the ‘cool kid’ in town, the club that everyone wants to join and be a part of.
“It will take all of us to get out the word about the chamber, the benefits and being the ‘cool kid’ club to the rest of the county.
“We also need to ‘turn the page’ on the idea, “It can’t be done, it will never work.’
“That thinking has kept our community, our county from what I view as much more potential,” Schaal said.
“We have the Statehouse and several tourist spots, we have the lake, we have the fairgrounds in Brownstown.
“Let’s embrace what we have, celebrate it and work toward potential growth in the future. Myself and all of you chose to live, work and open businesses within this community – let’s work together to see them succeed, and enjoy what we have,” he said.