By James Rincon

Pflag Reporter

The collaborative task force overhauling Pflugerville’s shop local program will roll out a citywide marketing campaign next month complete with coupons, savings cards and a shopper-centric website aimed at keeping sales tax dollars within the city’s limits.

Come Home To Shop was the vision of the Pflugerville Chamber of Commerce. Last April Mayor Jeff Coleman led the city’s charge to become involved in the program. The Pflugerville Come Home To Shop Task Force now comprises members of the City Council, Pflugerville Com-munity Development Corp-oration, Chamber investors, Pflugerville Fire ESD No. 2, Pflugerville Downtown As-sociation members and New Quest representatives.

“The additional collaboration and funding creates a broader communication net for getting the word out about how important it is to shop local,” Chamber of Commerce Presidents and CEO Patricia Gervan-Brown said. “I don’t see it being different, I just see it as an expansion of what we’ve already had in place for the last couple of years.”

The city allocated $22,000 to the project and PCDC approved a $25,000 contribution. The chamber and Pflugerville Fire ESD No. 2 added $5,000 each, along with other contributors.

City Communications Director Terri Waggoner said the newly developed website ComeHomeToShopPF.com, is the heart of the campaign.

“We want this to be the website that when you’re going to go shopping, that you shop in Pflugerville first, and you go to this website to get some coupons and good deals,” Waggoner said. “It’s not just about sales tax. It’s also about the services that you can purchase here in town whether it be a mechanic or something else. People always think they have to buy retail for Come Home To Shop, and that’s not the case. It’s when you’re doing any kind of shopping.”

Local businesses can join the website free of charge when they develop printable coupons for shoppers to use. Councilman and Task Force member Darrell White said the business listing will serve as a valuable tool to consumers, even beyond potential savings.

“Our community for so many years hasn’t really had that many places within the city to shop. In many instances, and this is a key component of this, they’re not really even sure what’s in the city and what’s not,” White said.

Despite the program’s emphasis on keeping money in Pflugerville, chamber investors with businesses located outside city limits will also be listed on the Come Home To Shop site.

Chamber board and Task Force member Matt Sparkman, who Gervan-Brown describes as the driving force behind the discount card program, manages First State Bank just outside of Pflugerville city limits. Businesses like his and Pflugerville Pharmacy will participate in the program, though Pflugerville does not collect sales tax revenue from them.

“From our [the task force’s] perspective it would be extremely difficult, and I don’t think we would be able to support a program that did not include our entire membership base,” Sparkman said. “We can’t carve out our membership that’s just in the city limits. We have a large population or business members that are just on the outskirts and many of them have physical postal addresses that are Pflugerville and obviously there is a lot of perception within the community that this is Pflugerville.”

White added that mainstays like Charlie’s Steak House and Springhill Restaurant are often regarded by citizens as well-accepted parts of the Pflugerville the community despite technically outlying city limits.

“We want to make sure that because they’ve contributed to Little League, football teams and everything else to support the Pflugerville community, we’re being careful not to say ‘You’re not in the city of Pflugerville; you don’t matter anymore.’ We’re not saying that at all,” White said.

Over the next two months the Task Force will kick off its advertising and marketing campaign for Come Home To Shop. Currently 16 businesses have enrolled on the website. The site takes new businesses though an online registration tutorial, and is up and running for both business and consumer use.