In light of the launching of a new program by the Austin Area Chamber of Commerce to encourage local shopping, the Tribune asked the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce and the Albert Lea Convention and Visitors Bureau to see if a similar program is in the works here.

The Austin program is asking for citizens to pledge to bring 10 percent of their shopping back within Mower County.

Randy Kehr, executive director of the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce, said his board has not yet discussed an actual shop-local program in Albert Lea, but he would look into some opportunities to do so.

“It should be a consistent message we carry all the time,” Kehr said. “In whatever we do, we should think of our community first. I’ve discovered over the years that if a store doesn’t have something I’m looking for, they’ll find it.”

Right now, he said, the Chamber of Commerce consistently encourages the use of Chamber Bucks instead of cash rewards, as a way for people to invest in the community.

“That’s probably the single biggest thing we do,” Kehr said. “We’ll see $200,000 of those a year.”

Chamber Bucks cannot be spent outside of the community.

Also, during the holiday season, the chamber spends a “significant amount of money” to advertise shopping locally, he said.

Albert Lea Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Susie Petersen said the Convention and Visitors Bureau puts together welcome bags, in which local businesses can submit fliers to encourage visitors to shop in town.

The bags include a brochure highlighting the downtown, along with coupons for local businesses.

“My job is to promote outside Albert Lea,” Petersen said. “When folks come into Albert Lea, we do thousands of bags, and we give those to the groups that come in.”

The bags are put together for free.

“We love to promote all of our attractions,” she said. “We put all the attractions in these bags.”

Do what we say, not what we do

While Albert Lea’s Chamber of Commerce and CVB indeed promote local shopping, there are a few ways the organizations are not fulfilling that promise themselves.

Both organizations contracted with companies outside of the Freeborn County to print their publications.

The chamber, for example, contracted with Village Profile Inc., of Illinois, to do the advertising and printing for its map and directory.

Kehr said the contract has been in place for a couple years — from before he became director — and when the contract expires, the situation will probably change.

Now that some of the local printing operations have the opportunity and capabilities, they will have the chance to bid on the project, he said.

“For a long time, no one was willing to commit the advertising person or had the capability to do the printing,” Kehr said.

Village Profile, which is a member of the local chamber, devotes an employee strictly to advertising and then the chamber gives that employee office space to work in.

He said he was assured by Village Profile that the company would offer the opportunity to print the publications to local chamber members. And as long as a local company is within 10 percent of what the Village Profile would charge to complete the printing, they are awarded the bid.

“I received absolute assurance that our members who were capable of printing it would be offered the opportunity to print,” Kehr said. “Our policy is to buy it from our members if it’s humanly possible.”

He could not answer to what happened before he was appointed to his position, but he said he has been assured by Village Profile that local printers will be given the opportunity to bid on the current publication.

“We try very hard to make sure our members have the opportunity,” Kehr said.

When the contract with Village Profile expires, everything will be up for bids, he said.

Local company seeks contract

In spite of Village Profile’s assurances to Kehr, Mike Kruse, president of Church Offset Printing, said he has not been asked to bid on these projects. His company can print them, just not the same way Village Profile does.

The one time he did bid on a project and was awarded, he wasn’t solicited. He had to go and ask someone for the bid information, even though he is a chamber member.

Where his problem lies, he said, is in not having a sales staff to do advertising, but he could team up with local businesses.

Kruse said companies such as Village Profile design their projects around the equipment they have, and unless a business has that specific press, they would not be able to print the publication. It’s a narrow set of standards.

When it comes to the local Convention and Visitors Bureau, Petersen said, it is contracting out with Northstar Press out of St. Cloud to make its new visitor’s guide.

Northstar specializes in visitor’s guides and puts together the entire publication, including the advertisements, the designs and the printing.

“It’s a true visitor’s guide,” Petersen said. “We’re trying to do a little something to attract to Albert Lea.”

Petersen did not share further information about the contract, even though the CVB is a government entity and the contract is a public record.