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Entries in Aaron Nelson (4)

Wednesday
Jun022010

Chamber: Shift Spending by $200 Locally to Fund 10 Teachers

DateWednesday, June 2, 2010 at 10:42AM | by AuthorLisa Rossi | Comment4 Comments

I know we hear it all the time: Buy local. We push it in the pages of our magazine, featuring merchandise, clothing and food created by people who own businesses and homes in this community. Downtown advocates have even created a free valet service, making shopping and dining downtown that much easier.Franklin Street.

But what does buying locally actually mean? Aaron Nelson, president and CEO of the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Chamber of Commerce put it in pretty stark terms during a recent presentation on the state of our community at a Friends of Downtown meeting.

According to Nelson, if Orange County residents shift their spending by $200 a year to Orange County, local sales tax revenue will rise by 2 percent, which equals $500,000 in new sales tax revenue.

Chamber Vice President Adam Klein says that translates into money that could be spent on 10 teachers' salaries with benefits.

In 2008-09, there was a total of $926,654,246 in taxable sales in Orange County, according to the Chamber’s State of the Community report, but in neighboring Durham County, retail sales exceeded $2.5 million.

It’s pretty clear that Orange County residents are among those helping that Durham number creep up. And let’s be honest with ourselves: Sometimes it's necessary to go elsewhere, to get what we can’t get here.

“We abhor what we desire,” Nelson said. “We shop at Costco, but we don’t want a Costco.”

For more stats from the State of the Community report, click here.

And - please share your thoughts. What strategies do you use to buy local? What does our city need to make buying local more of a reality? What are the barriers to buying local? 

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Friday
Jun192009

Five Questions With … Aaron Nelson

DateFriday, June 19, 2009 at 3:27PM | by AuthorLisa Rossi | CommentPost a Comment

Aaron Nelson, in our office for his interview.We are starting a new series here where we ask five (or so) off-beat questions to get to know people in our community in a different way. Here’s our first shot, with Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce President Aaron Nelson. Think you know someone who should be profiled in this feature? E-mail me at lisarossi@chapelhillmagazine.com.

What is the most played song on your iPod? “Hallelujah,” by Rufus Wainwright. I like it. It’s very nice. Good melody. I have some College A Cappella songs too. Their version of “Crazy” is really good.

You must be a musical person. I enjoy other people’s music.

You’re in high school. It’s Friday night. Where are you? At home studying. [laughing] I was kind of dorky. Friday night my senior year of high school I was probably at some debate tournament in North Carolina.

Did you ever watch Inspector Gadget as a kid? What superpower would be most useful to you in every day life?  Go-Go Gadget iPhone! It could jump out! That would be awesome. I like the Gadget-copter. I’ll take that one. Quick! I’ll be right downtown.

What did you want to be when you grew up? I thought I was going to be an actor. If I had $1 million and could do whatever I wanted [now], I’d be a groundskeeper on the Carolina campus. Mow the beautiful quads and plant flowers and trim bushes.

I’ve heard you can learn a lot about a person by looking at their desk. What would your desk tell me about you? There’s a lot of paper on my desk. My general view is if you file it, you might as well throw it away. So if I need it, if it’s currently an open item, it’s on the top of my desk. My desk is a wreck.

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Friday
Jun122009

Buy Local: A Q&A with Alan Hecht

DateFriday, June 12, 2009 at 5:04PM | by AuthorDan Shannon | CommentPost a Comment

Alan Hecht, Chairperson of the Buy Local CommitteeThe idea of "local" seems to be on everyone's minds these days (or, at least, in the progressive town we live in). Local food, local merchandise, even the town of Chapel Hill's entertainment series is called Locally Grown. But what does it really mean to "Buy Local," a new program being promoted by the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Chamber of Commerce? I recently had a chance to speak with Alan Hecht, Chairperson of the Chamber's Buy Local Committee, who gave me a few insights. (We should also note that the Chamber's CEO, Aaron Nelson, helped us by editing the copy for this interview as he served as our temp for a day in a recent effort he's making to work at local businesses and find out what really makes them run).

Buy local? Does that mean only shop at locally owned stores?
No. We define it as supporting the communities where you live, work, shop and play. A lot of stores and services are locally owned, including many franchises.

Isn’t that a lot like declaring economic warfare on our neighbors? Not very neighborly.
No, no, that’s not what we’re advocating at all. We just want residents to understand that there are options and those include buying locally.

Is this all about supporting our local retailers?
That’s one of the great bonuses but it’s also about supporting our infrastructure; when you buy local, you generate the money to fund everything from street lamps to teachers to police to waste management.

Does it really make a difference?
Oh yes. There are more than 100,000 adults in Orange County and if they redirected only $200 annually to local stores rather than spent it online it would result in a $500,000 increase in tax revenues in Orange County.

But sometimes isn’t it just easier to jump in the car and drive over to Southpoint?
Yeah, I get that, but we want to let our neighbors know that there are scores of options to buy here and it really makes a difference. There are 15 places to buy socks in Chapel Hill, you know. Go to www.webuylocal.org and see our directory.

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Tuesday
Jun022009

10,000 Miles from Home

DateTuesday, June 2, 2009 at 11:24AM | by AuthorDan Shannon | CommentPost a Comment

The view from Aaron Nelson's hotel room in Kuala Lumpur.Aaron Nelson, the CEO and President of our Chamber of Commerce, has left the country.

As a result of the Chamber’s efforts in sustainability initiatives, Aaron was invited to represent our Chamber at the biennial World Chamber Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“We have never participated in this conference before,” he emails, “but this year the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber was invited to present to the delegates about our nationally recognized Green Plus Program and our innovative partnership with Duke and UNC Chapel Hill called the Institute for Sustainable Development.

Aaron sent along the message that, “For those of you who are interested, I will be regularly updating my facebook page and posting to twitter as I am able. So ‘friend’ me or follow me on Twitter at AaronNelson1.”

On a personal note, Aaron, thanks for bringing a copy of Chapel Hill Magazine along for the ride (see photo with The Petronas Twin Towers in the background). This significantly increases our Malaysian circulation.

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