Business: Celebrate Independents Week!

This week is Independents Week. What is that, you ask?

It is a celebration of the business community in AZ of which over 90% are small, locally-owned businesses. Get in on the act and show your support by shopping from locally owned businesses from July 2-July 8th!

From Arizona Chain Reaction and Local First AZ:

Independents Week sparks fireworks

Fireworks are crackling across the Valley - and it's not even the Fourth of July yet. Independents Week launched with a BANG on Monday, July 2 with the new www.localfirstaz.com website, our awesome GOLDEN TICKET promotion, a massive radio and TV campaign, and a slew of SHOP LOCAL pledges from the likes of Councilman Tom Simplot, former Governor Rose Mofford and State Senator Ken Cheuvront.

You can see the full list of pledgers here - plus their Top 10 (or Top 16) lists of favorite Arizona businesses. PLEASE GIVE A SHOUT OUT TO OUR WEB DESIGNER BRIAN FLATGARD FOR HIS HARD WORK ON LAUNCHING THE NEW WEBSITE!!!

Our fifth annual Independents Week advertising and awareness campaign launched in full force on Monday on AZ*TV (TV 13, Cable 27) and KJZZ-NPR 91.5-FM and KBAQ-Classical 89.5-FM.

A record-setting 35 members are participating in the campaign, generating more than 60 member-oriented Local First TV spots and over 430 member radio spots. In addition, 60 Local First public service announcements are running throughout the week on AZ*TV and another 200 Local First spots are running on public radio!

It is NOT too late to get involved in Independents Week - several members have sent email newsletters to their customers encouraging them to TAKE THE PLEDGE TO SHOP 100% LOCALLY from July 2-8 and download the awesome Golden Ticket for once-in-a-lifetime values at a variety of Local First member-businesses. Here's some handy text that you can copy and paste into an email newsletter of your own:


Dear Friends,

I support the locally owned, Independent businesses that make Arizona a unique and wonderful place to live. To show my commitment, I have taken the Local First Arizona pledge to SHOP 100% LOCALLY during Independents Week, July 2-8. The folks at Local First Arizona have made it easy by providing a GOLDEN TICKET for 20% off at participating businesses - and they've even got a selection of favorite local businesses from Arizona leaders. Please join me in taking the pledge by visiting www.localfirstaz.com this week!

HAPPY INDEPENDENTS WEEK,
(YOUR NAME HERE)