Dear Go Local Loyalists,

This is going to be a long newsletter and I apologize in advance for it’s length.  So many things I wanted to share so grab a coffee or favorite beverage, find a comfy chair and let’s go! Oh, and before I forget…Happy 4th of July! Have a wonderful holiday weekend, have fun and stay safe!

Welcome New Go Local Members!

It is always a pleasure to introduce our new Go Local members who can be now be found in our online directory and smartphone app. Please join me in welcoming our latest new members!

Asheville Compounding Pharmacy – Free 15 min pharmacist consult for hormones and supplements!

AVL Hat Bar by She’s Crafty – $15 Off Your Custom Hat Experience

SUP Asheville – Free gear add-on with every rental (ex: SUP Cooler)

Happy Independent Retailer Month, Asheville!

The City of Asheville joined with Go Local, the Asheville Downtown Association, the Merchants of Downtown, Explore AVL, River Arts District Artists, West Asheville Business Association and Historic Biltmore Village Business Association in proclaiming July as  “Independent Retailer Month.” This proclamation (you can read it here) from the City is a great reminder of the importance of our local independent retailers to Asheville, its local economy and unique culture. If you are a local independent retailer, here is a link to explore the opportunities of ways you can participate.

If you are a Go Local cardholder (or anyone who supports local!), here are 3 ideas to show your support:

• Shift 10 – Take the Shift 10 pledge where, for the month of July, you shift 10% of your spend at national chains, big box stores and online “e-tailers” to local, independent retailers.

• Pic & Post – Show love to your favorite stores, shops or boutiques by taking pics and posting them on social. Be sure and tag the store and while you’re tagging, add @GoLocalAsheville, and we’ll help you share!

• Join the scavenger hunt! Explore Asheville has set up a scavenger hunt on their smartphone app, Explore Asheville in the Apple Store or Google Play. Shoppers who “check in” using their app at indie retailers in July will be entered to win a basket of Asheville-made goodies. 

You’ve probably read in the news that Asheville tourism is down this year. Many of our retailers rely on visitors for some part of their revenue. So, in addition to participating in Independent Retailer Month because it is fun and there are prizes to be won, not to mention many are Go Local business members who also offer discounts, they continue to need our locals to support them and show their love through their wallets.

Go Local Businesses Show Up For Helene Recovery

With the 9 month anniversary of Helene that just occurred, we thought it would be a good time to start sharing stories from our Go Local Business Members of how they stepped up to help our community recover from the devastation of post Helene. Like you, I had heard some of the stories of heroism, unselfish acts of support, generosity, and love. But I had not collected them…until now. For the next few months, leading up to the 1 year anniversary, Go Local will share these stories with you. For today’s newsletter, I’ll share 3 stories. There are many, many more to come!

Patton Avenue Pets (Story submitted by Jenna Wilson)

We were super lucky to have retained power and internet service at our Downtown location (thank you to ERC Broadband!) and we quickly realized what a gift that was, being one of the few places in the city with connectivity. We opened our downtown location to the public for charging phones and connecting to WiFi, posting our WiFi password on our front door so it could even be utilized after hours. Our business became part pet store, part internet cafe, and for several days we were able to help hundreds of people connect to loved ones, find safe routes home, file insurance and FEMA and unemployment paperwork, and unfortunately also find out hard news. We also became a donation center in the first days after the storm, receiving and distributing food and water before larger donation sites got up and running. Once others were caring for the people in our community, we shifted our focus to receiving and distributing pet food and supplies from our vendors to those in need in our community. Our team were rockstars, going above and beyond their job descriptions and expectations, and we all felt so blessed to be in a position to help the people and animals in our community.

All Day Darling (Story submitted by Megan Beaver)

We cooked everything that didn’t go bad and gave it to the neighborhood, used the restaurant as a donation and distribution center for goods and water before we could reopen, and served free hot meals out of the window when we were able.

Lark About Design ( Story submitted by Lark Frazier)

Immediately after the storm, my normal operations as a web design business were put on pause. I started teaching people without water in Asheville how to safely manage their waste (yep, their poop!) with DIY dry toilets.

“Poop Crew” rapidly grew to over 30 people and my emergency sanitation update videos garnered over 30,000 views online to help raise awareness of the, uh, urgency of the situation. We raised over $5000 for supplies and provided dry toilets and emergency sanitation supplies and education to several thousand people (we estimated we gave out over 1000 complete toilet kits, and partial supplies for many more).  I was so glad to be able to put my design skills to work by creating information leaflets, dry toilet instructions and the www.toiletsofavl.com website to help people poop- safely, and with dignity. You can read the whole story & find pictures from that time here! https://www.larkaboutdesign.com/blog/the-asheville-toilet-lady

Survey Says….

A couple of months back, Go Local surveyed its cardholders and business members.  We try and survey at least every couple of years to check in, get opinions and feedback and where possible, align programs and initiatives as warranted to the wants and needs of our community. I won’t share all of the feedback as it would take up a lot of space, but wanted to give you the highlights that may be of interest.

The key takeaways from the business member survey are:

• Go Local members who completed the survey largely consisted of long-standing participants and brick-and-mortar businesses, with most primarily serving local residents. Nearly half of the respondents (45.61%) primarily serve “locals/residents,” while 38.60% have an “Evenly divided between both locals and visitors” customer base.

• These respondents highly value Go Local’s importance to the local independent business community. (Average rating was 4 out of 5 in importance).

• There’s strong alignment between members’ perceptions and Go Local’s mission statement (Grow a resilient local economy and thriving community, champion the unique character of our region and advocate for prosperity for all). When asked about actions Go Local currently incorporates to fulfill its mission, “Promote” (actively marketing local businesses and encouraging community support) was selected by 86.84% of respondents. Other highly recognized actions include “Inform and educate” (63.16%)  and “Unite” (bringing diverse businesses together) (55.26%).

• When we asked respondents to think ahead five years, there was a desire for Go Local to expand its “Connect” and “Protect” actions, and in five years, they envision Go Local as more “innovative” while remaining “community-focused”.

• As with past surveys, the primary reasons for membership are the pride of local business recognition and increasing client base, with “Trustworthiness” and “Reliability” being highly valued traits.

The key takeaways from the cardholder survey are:

• Most cardholders (36.78%) initially learned about the program through promotional materials at participating local businesses, followed by word-of-mouth from friends, neighbors, or family members (18.39%).

• The most common usage frequency for the Go Local card is “a few times a month” (33.91%), with “about once a week” also being significant (17.82%).

• The top reason for purchasing a Go Local card is “To support the local independent business community” (score of 3.37 out of 5), ahead of “For the discounts and perks” (score of 3.00).  Cardholders are most interested in receiving “Exclusive access to special one-time business offers or merchandise” (54.60%) as an additional offering.

• A very high percentage of cardholders (74.14%) are “Very likely” to recommend a Go Local card to others, indicating strong satisfaction and advocacy for the program.

Plans for Go Local Moving Forward – Stay Tuned!

Based on these findings as well as conversations with business owners, cardholders, and collaborators, especially those had post Helene, here are 3 initiatives Go Local is undertaking to better serve our community.

1). Website and App Refresh – We heard the message (and by the way, don’t disagree) about the difficulty (and importance) of being able to use our on-line directories to find our business members easily and to make it easier for our business members to update their profiles. We’ve already started the work to better understand the user journey when navigating these directories and hope to be able to incorporate these learnings by time we launch the 2026 Go Local card.

2). Brand Refresh – Go Local is relooking how we show up for our community, and by community, I mean our local independent businesses, our Go Local cardholders, and our schools. As we look at it, these 3 groups are connected and interdependent. For Go Local to serve it’s mission, this is how we’ll think about community moving forward and the work we do will reflect our commitment.

3). More collaborations – Nothing helps amplify a voice and create efficiencies like strong, strategic collaborations. We learned this most recently post Helene when Go Local partnered with the Downtown Association and other community based organizations and nonprofits to hold information sessions to keep our local businesses informed on Helene Recovery. Since then, we’ve collaborated with the Chamber, Explore Asheville, Bountiful Cities, AIR, West Asheville Business Association, Historic Biltmore Village Association, the Downtown Association and others to offer workshops and info sessions, create co-promotions and share marketing opportunities all to better serve our community.  

Four Go Local Members Win 2025 Wine Spectator

Best Restaurants for Wine Award

We’re so proud of all eleven Asheville Restaurants that won this year’s Wine Spectator for Best Restaurants for Wine Award. You can go here for the list of all 11 winners. I’d like to do a special shoutout to the four that are Go Local business members: Blackbird, Chestnut, Corner Kitchen (will be reopening soon!) and Posana. Congratulations…we’re so proud!

ADID Successfully Launches Downtown

The Asheville Downtown Improvement District (ADID) successfully launched on June 1st (they actually did a soft launch on May 1st) and early reports are stellar! To learn more about ADID, go here. They’ll be posting statistics monthly on the Downtown Association website, which you can find here. For example, in May they removed 1,375 lbs of trash, did 3,836 sweeps,1,413 landscaping tasks, and 749 graffiti removals. Plus a lot more. Next time your downtown and you happen upon a Community Ambassador (they’re working 14 hours a day and wearing a designated Ambassador shirt), stop and say “Hi” and thank them for their work. This project’s mission is to improve safety and cleanliness downtown and from what I hear, they’re off to a great start!

Asheville Downtown Association Is Asking for Volunteers for

July 4th Block Party

I just ran into Hayden (Executive Director of the Downtown Association) and she told me they’re still looking for volunteers to help with the July 4th Block Party in South Slope. If you’re interested, go here to learn more and sign-up.

Thank-you, Newsletter Subscribers, for all you do for our community. Please don’t hesitate to contact me at sherree@golocalasheville with any questions or comments about the newsletter.

You Local Loyalist,

Sherree