Decorah merchants begin shop local promotion

The Decorah Area Chamber of Commerce's Retail Group is sponsoring a contest starting Friday to promote local shopping.

Each time a customer spends $25 at a participating member business, they will be entered into a drawing to win $100 in Chamber Dollars. The drawing will be held on May 25th.  Details are available from participating merchants.

According to an article by Stacey Miller, senior researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, communities with an active "buy local" campaign have experienced markedly stronger revenue growth (up 5.6 percent on average in 2010) compared to communities without such a campaign (only up 2.1 percent).