– Jen Dart is Executive Director of the Tofino-Long Beach Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached at 250.725.3153. www.tofinochamber.org.
TOFINO – ‘Tis the season to shop local! We like to kick off the holiday season here on the west coast with a few events that give locals and visitors the opportunities to gift buy in the area. The Make Merry Market took place on Nov. 25-26th at the Tofino Botanical Gardens, bringing together many artisans with specialty products, from jewelry to leather goods to pottery and much more.
This year it coincided nicely with Tofino Winterlights in the same location – tens of thousands of lights on display throughout the botanical gardens made for a festive atmosphere!
We jingled into Christmas on December 2nd at Tofino’s yearly night of local shopping at many participating retailers in town. Our own version of Black Friday, on this day shops stayed open late and offered amazing discounts and specials. Check out Tourism Tofino’s website for a list of retailers, their hours. (www.tourismtofino.com).
Here at the Chamber we partnered with LOCO BC to raise awareness about the importance of buying local for Buy Local week Nov. 20-Dec. 4. This is the 5th annual such event for LOCO BC, and the third time the Tofino Chamber has participated. To find out more, visit www.bcbuylocal.com.
We are also launching a program called Try Local Tofino to encourage more local purchasing. In a poll the Chamber conducted, most Tofino residents surveyed said they purchased between 25-50 per cent of goods outside of the community. While some of the reasons has to do with availability and price, there is opportunity to increase local purchasing in many areas.
Even a 10 per cent shift for each resident could mean thousands more dollars staying in the community each year. LOCO BC estimates that for each $100 spent locally, roughly $43-46 of that is recirculated into the local economy. When purchasing from large corporate retailers, that number drops to $13. We rely heavily on local businesses to donate to many local causes, and we should be supporting them in turn when possible.
The buy local program will also feature a Made in Tofino aspect highlighting locally made goods, of which we have many, including beer, chocolate, soap, and much more.
If you’re visiting Tofino this holiday season, check out some of our many eclectic local retailers and specialty food purveyors. Happy holidays!