K-W campaign challenges community to buy local for a week

A local social media campaign is challenging residents of the Kitchener-Waterloo community to engage more with the businesses around them and patronize local vendors for a week.

Live Local is ayearly initiative that asks people to shop, play and eat exclusively local continuously for a week.

"The community focus of this is [primarily] to celebrate local businesses rather than guilt tripping people to shop locally," Jordan Dolson, volunteer for Live Local.

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Dolson also owns Legacy Greens, a grocery store in downtown Kitchener. During the Live Local week, businesses like hers offer discounts to residents with the hope of getting new customers into their stores and maybe creating incentives for people who don't live or shop locally but want to patronize a Kitchener-Waterloo business.

According to Dolson, that won't be a difficult task.

"There's so many enthusiastic people that shop locally," she said. "People want to because it's a creative and unique experience where they feel like they're part of a community."

The campaign builds on that idea of community, which Dolson says already exists between local business owners and residents.

"With smaller stores in downtown [Kitchener], we know probably 75 per cent of our customers' names," she said. "That's an awesome feeling."

The Live Local campaign runs from September 18 till September 22.