Recession Makes its Way to Farmville

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Posted: 4/15/09

By Alexandra Tate
Rotunda Reporter

Everyone is feeling the effects of the recession. That includes the people of the Farmville area. According to Frank Ahrens on washingtonpost.com, "The recession, which began in December 2007, is now in its 16th month. If the recession continues into next month, it will be the longest since the Great Depression."

Farmville is a small but close-knit community and the town is taking action in helping each other out through these tough times. With our nation's economy in catastrophe, many businesses are under pressure to make ends meet, especially many locally-owned businesses. Wanda Whitus, president of the Farmville area chamber of commerce, said, "I think the recession is going to hurt everybody, we are all going to feel the pinch. We've been very busy the past three months promoting 'doing your business local.' We have done some advertisements and ads on the radio. The only person who is going to make that change is you and I. Its your neighbor that owns that business and so you try to build the economy just between our people right down the street."

The Farmville Area Chamber of Commerce strives to be a supporter for the community's best interests. They try to connect people together when someone is looking for something, such as a lawn service or bakery that will deliver. According to Whitus, "We do what we can to promote community and business. We've got some businesses that have been here a very long time. You always have that threat of a new business coming to town that are going to close the doors on a business that has been here many years that has already done that." Whitus discussed the recent openings of the Wal-Mart and Lowe's stores in town. "We had some merchants on Main Street that got really upset. We put together a couple of workshops." When Lowe's came in, merchants had similar concerns. "We said lots of times customers go back where the customer service is the best. It is loyalty. So far everybody's been able to keep their doors open, and we are happy of that."

The ladies of the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority hosted a program on April 10th called "Buying Black Friday" to help out. AKA joined up with a variety of black-owned businesses in Farmville. Participating businesses gave discounts to those that came in with a Buying Black Friday flyer or their student ID. The stores involved included Carrington's Music, City Wear and Healthy Living. Tara Carr, an AKA member and the event planner said, "Buying Black Friday is our effort to bring awareness to the Longwood community that there are small businesses who are struggling with the economic conditions. There is some sort of invisible fence, especially for freshmen, and we never get out experiencing the many things the community has to offer. We have five black-owned business participating, and we hope that students go on Friday to shop and continue to frequent the stores in the future."

It will be interesting to see how new businesses will do in Farmville and whether they will thrive or close. Hopefully by uniting the Farmville area to support local businesses can be a step in the right direction to the upside of this recession.