Now there are only a few days left: Next weekend (13 and 14 September), the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) Kassel-Marburg, together with its cooperation and media partners, is once again inviting you to the “Shop at Home” campaign days.
This year, 24 municipalities in northern Hesse and the Marburg region are taking part. Co-initiators are trade associations and city marketing organizations, the GrimmHeimat Nordhessen as well as the Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine (HNA), the Hersfelder Zeitung, the Werra Rundschau, the Waldeckische Landeszeitung and the Oberhessische Presse (OP).
The design of the image campaign was modernized for its tenth anniversary. But the goal remains the same: “Shop at home” is intended to draw attention to the social and economic value of shopping locally. “Retailers and restaurateurs strengthen the experience character of inner cities and town centers. They ensure quality of life, create jobs and training opportunities, pay trade taxes and provide space for personal exchange,” says Désirée Derin-Holzapfel, President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce Kassel-Marburg. “For the economy, lively inner cities and town centers are an important argument as a location factor for increasing the attractiveness of the employer brand in order to secure skilled workers,” adds Marko Ackermann, Head of the Location Policy | Business Promotion | International team. Now it is a matter of setting up the centers with the support of politicians so that they will continue to attract visitors for a long time to come. “Shop at home is the ideal campaign to draw attention to this.”
Around 65,000 shopping bags with the modernized Heimat-shoppen logo are already being distributed free of charge during the campaign weekend to raise awareness among customers that by shopping locally they are helping to positively shape their living environment.
For companies, their participation in the action days involves only minimal costs. Advertising materials such as shopping bags are sponsored by the initiators. In return, business owners can put their businesses on display. City marketing and trade associations also organize joint campaigns.
The following 24 municipalities will be participating in 2024:
Bad Arolsen, Bad Emstal, Bad Hersfeld, Bad Sooden-Allendorf, Bad Wildungen, Borken, Eschwege, Frankenberg, Hofgeismar, Immenhausen, Kassel, Kaufungen, Kirchhain, Marburg, Melsungen, Neukirchen, Neustadt, Niederaula, Philippsthal, Schwalmstadt, Sontra, Stadtallendorf, Witzenhausen and Wolfhagen
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The Heimat shoppen initiative was launched in 2014 by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of the Middle Lower Rhine. Since then, 47 chambers of industry and commerce across Germany have joined. The Marburg office of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Kassel-Marburg launched the campaign days for the first time in Hesse in 2017 together with the city marketing department, before the Chamber of Industry and Commerce expanded the campaign to the entire Chamber of Industry and Commerce district from 2018 with various partners. Since 2021, all Hessian chambers have been represented at the campaign days.
