We recently went over 40,000 downloads of the Locally Epic app. That is 40,000 people getting great offers and deals right here in Greenville. Are you one of those 40,000 smart people? If not, sign up now.
Busy weekend ahead
We are getting ready for Shop Local Saturday this weekend. What is Shop Local Saturday? This is Locally Epic’s way to help promote and grow local business by encouraging people to shop and purchase things at locally owned stores. There are several ways we do this. This blog is just one of them.
Why is this important?
It’s simple. Buying local means money stays local and goes back into our community. We are not asking you to buy more. Just buy what you normally buy at a locally-owned business. Instead of getting sunglasses at the big-box, go to the local corner store. Instead of getting mulch and dirt at the megamart, buy it at the local nursery. Instead of eating at the chain restaurant, put those dollars into the local mom-and pop restaurant.
You won’t think you are doing a lot to change the face of Greenville, but you really are. You are keeping business local. And that is Locally Epic.
Chase on TedX
A while back we shared a lot about our CEO Chase Michaels being a speaker at TedX Greenville. Well, today, we get to share the video of Chase speaking at the event.
You can click on it here.
We are like totally biased and stuff, but we think Chase hit out of the park when it comes to explaining why it is so important to buy local. And that is what Locally Epic is all about.
Locally Epic bands with Stories of the Upstate for “Hop-In Unplugged”
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Locally Epic and Stories of The Upstate Podcast have banded together to announce a new type of ride experience starting Thursday, May 17 called, “Hop-In Unplugged.”
Locals and visitors of Greenville will get to enjoy live music this summer while riding downtown in the “Hop-In” electric vehicle cars. The new addition to the ride service will feature different local musicians riding along playing music from 4:30 p.m. until 5 p.m. every Thursday before Downtown Alive.
“Greenville has such an up-and-coming music scene and we are excited to work with a lot of local artists on our podcast,” said Loyd Ford, host of Stories of The Upstate. “Not only does this give local musicians a chance to get their name out, but provides a great opportunity for Locally Epic and Stories of The Upstate Podcast as well.”
The line-up of artists that will be along for the ride include Jeff Holland, Alex Hunnicutt, Rush Morgan, Jeremy Brewer, Adam Carter, Charles Hedge Path, Tyler J Pearson, Brooks Dixon and Morgan Riley through July 12. Other artists participating in “Hop-In Unplugged” will continue to be announced throughout the summer months.
“I think this new addition of live entertainment is a great way to enhance the “Hop-In” experience,” said Chase Michaels, founder of Locally Epic. “It gives people a chance to see that Greenville is becoming more of a music town with a lot of great artists on the rise.”
The Hop-In service is powered by Locally Epic, using vehicles built by Star EV, which is located in Greenville County, and sells vehicles throughout the United States and internationally. Rogers EV, a division of Rogers Stereo, recently joined Star EV as the Authorized Dealer of golf carts, commercial vehicles, Personal Transportation Vehicles (PTVs) and Street Legal Vehicles (LSVs).
The “Hop-In” service began its six-month running season on May 10, a perfect coordination with the late spring and early summer events that draw people to enjoy downtown Greenville. The service will run daily from 11 a.m. to dusk. The tip only service is on a first come, first served basis. For businesses and individuals looking to support the service, sponsorship details can be found online at www.hopingreenville.com.
About Locally Epic:
Locally Epic is the next generation of real-time location-based marketing technology for businesses and consumers. Locally Epic leverages time, space and message deployment with real-time aspects of engagement, implementation, customer loyalty and consumer acquisition metrics. Learn more at www.locallyepic.com.
About Stories of The Upstate
Stories of The Upstate (iTunes, Stitcher app) is a podcast show featuring new interview episodes with local personalities every Monday and Thursday. The show, hosted by Loyd Ford, spotlights the people, passion and wisdom of Upstate South Carolina and features a free “Downtown Jam™ free concert on the second Wednesday of each month. All shows are free on-demand and available in your app store. From entrepreneurs to local musicians, the focus is on telling the story of the most interesting people of the Upstate. Learn more at www.upstateisgreat.com.
Greenville is so epic and we love it
One of Locally Epic’s goals, actually our biggest goal, is to highlight the amazing epic the Greenville community. The next two weeks underscore everything that we are all about. Here is what we have going one.
April 27: We are heading to Charleston for Dig South.
April 28: Shop Local Saturday. This is our push to get people to push their buying toward more local purchases. We do this every fourth Saturday of the month. It just so happens that this Saturday also falls on Independent Book Store Day. Check out our app for more.
May 5: We are sponsoring the Duck Derby Hat contest as part of the annual Reedy River Duck Derby in downtown Greenville. Learn more here.
We have some other things going on as well. Stay tuned.
Busy week being Locally Epic
Some weeks are just busy. This is one of them. We will be joining the folks at the Rotary Club of Greenville Evening and Councilmember Jil Littlejohn at the Topside Pool Club Wednesday to announced the 2018 Reedy River Duck Derby. You can adopt a duck here.
And then on Thursday night, we…ok…our CEO Chase…will be at the Peace Center to talk about why shopping local matters as part of TedX Greenville.
But wait, there’s more on the docket. We will be at the Greenville Swamp Rabbits game on Thursday for the finals of the Million Dollar Slap Shot contest.
Have fun. We are!
A beautiful day to shop local
Waking up is not easy for most people on the weekday. Thankfully, there is GVLToday, which makes the waking up process a little more easy. This five-day-a-week email blast has information to help you get through the day.
Of course, they gave us a nice shout out this morning, which helped put a spring in our step.
Check us out at TEDx
We have some really cool news. We have been selected to speak at TEDx Greenville’s 2018 conference at the Peace Center’s Gunter Theatre on April 6.
So what is TEDx Greenville?
The event engages attendees in moving stories, jaw-dropping performances, and demonstrations of groundbreaking new technologies under the event’s theme for 2018: “EXPRESS.”
Patterned after the hugely popular global TED conference (www.ted.com), TEDxGreenville, the first TEDx event in South Carolina which launched in 2010, continues to gain momentum year after year through spreading ideas during its always sold-out conference and igniting Greenville’s leading thinkers and doers from all backgrounds.
“TEDxGreenville is a catalyst for the most progressive, most innovative, and most mind-expanding ideas possible, presented in one short day in Greenville. We want to be a vehicle in creating healthy, important conversation in Greenville.” stated Russell Stall, TEDxGreenville License Holder and Organizer. “The atmosphere is designed to be inspirational, fun, and thought-provoking, and we want to ensure that a
At the heart of TEDxGreenville are the event’s presenters: a diverse group that includes business innovators, community activists, scientists, academics, performers, and community change agents. Each of the presenters are chosen based on their potential to spur change and to create a shift in thinking in the Upstate. The event leaves attendees surprised, uneasy, impressed, troubled, moved, bemused, and inspired. Every talk and performance is offered in a spirit of growth and camaraderie that’s been integral to the TEDxGreenville experience since the organization’s first conference.
“Our goal when choosing presenters is to find inspirational, energetic, and fascinating people who want to create the Greenville of the future, It’s all about presenting the most innovative ideas that Greenville has never seen or heard before,” stated Julian Nixon, Curator and Director of the Presenter Selection Team.
The theme for 2018 is Express. According to Nixon, “The word Express can mean to express a particular genetic trait, or to express oneself through song and dance, or to act with haste. As the community looks towards what the future may hold for Greenville, many are aware that the characteristics of tomorrow’s Greenville are created today. So just what do we want our future Greenville to express? Let’s talk about it…”
We hope to see you there. Get tickets at tedxgreenville.com.
What is the Upstate?
The Upstate has seen tremendous population growth in the past decade. About 70,000 new people have moved to Greenville, Anderson and Spartanburg counties in the past seven years alone. These are people who have come for work and to enjoy the lifestyle here. They have added to our culture, but what have we shown them? They are getting heaping helpings of great Clemson football teams, a foodie boom, highway construction and amazingly unique downtowns. But are they really learning what the Upstate is? Are they enjoying the things that many of us know, but take for granted? And we are not talking about things that are no longer here. We are talking about the things that make our little slice of the world so very genuine. With that in mind, we at Locally Epic (with the always-wonderful aid of social media) have come up with a Top 10 list of things that anyone in our region has to do at least once to say they really live here. These are the things only an insider would know about and attempt over time. This is not a weekend fun list. This is the Upstate.
- Snap a photo of the Peachoid (but not while you’re driving on the interstate): Located just off I-85 in Gaffney County, nothing says welcome to the Upstate like a giant peach on the horizon. Yes, it does look like a giant butt. Thousands drive past it every day, and it even made it into an episode of “House of Cards,” so you really can’t say you live here until you have a picture of it.
- Go to Victoria Valley Vineyard: This vineyard in northern Greenville County has become a destination for many romantic dates. Located just off Highway 11, Victoria Valley Vineyards is beautiful and scenic, and the wine is locally made and fantastic.
- Take in a race at Greenville Pickens Speedway: This SHOULD be higher on the list, but apparently a lot of people have not been to this racetrack off Highway 123 just past the Saluda River. But they SHOULD go there. There is nothing like watching actual stock cars race, and this place has it, and so much more. It oozes authentic history. While so many places try to be authentic, this place is it. You get 10 points cooler on the authenticity scale just by walking through the gate. Oh yeah, and while you can buy a fried-bologna sandwich at the concession stand, you can also BYO beer and food, which somehow makes it cooler.
- Climb Table Rock: Are their better places to hike in the Upstate? Yes. But for some reason, this is the place everyone hikes at least once. Why? We think it is the view of “the rock,” which can be seen from miles away. A person is drawn to it, and wants to conquer it.
- Walk around Furman’s Lake: This was another one that surprised us, but shouldn’t have. A picnic and walk around the lake is high on the list of romantic (and inexpensive) first dates. Everyone does it at least once. While there, check out the Thoreau Cabin.
- Shop at the Anderson Jockey Lot: We want to make a joke about underwear or people who ride horses, but the reality is that a person can likely find both in droves at the Jockey Lot, a giant flea market located in Anderson County on Highway 29. For generations, many Upstaters considered Sunday to be a day for going to church and prayer. The others went to the Jockey Lot early to get a jump on the best sales and things to purchase. Today, well, now everyone needs to go to the Jockey Lot at least once.
- Trek around Croft State Park: This is an Upstate jewel located just south of downtown Spartanburg. Whether you want to run, bike, hike, swim or fish, Croft State Park has it. A former World War II camp with more than 7,000, acres to explore, Croft is simply beautiful. And the best part is the location: If you get bored or it starts raining, you are about a 10-minute drive to downtown Spartanburg where you can find plenty to do.
- Boat on Lake Keowee: We chose Keowee, but we easily could have chosen Hartwell or Robinson or Bowen. You might live here, but you haven’t really lived until you have found yourself sipping a cold one on the back of a boat on an Upstate lake. What, you don’t drink alcohol? We said cold one, and that could mean a Coke. Or a Pepsi. Or a Cheerwine. (You haven’t had a Cheerwine? Then go drink one and start over on this list. You can’t say you live here until you have had a Cheerwine.)
- Eat at The Beacon Drive-In: There is nothing like the Beacon anywhere else in America. Located on the cusp of Spartanburg’s downtown (go here after Croft!), it would be easy to say that stepping into the Beacon is like stepping back in time. But it is more like stepping into a different reality that is void of healthy food, gravity and good manners. Only one of those is true and it isn’t gravity or manners. But it’s not the food that keeps people and presidential candidates coming back time after time. It is the place. We lack the words to describe why it is great. It just is great. And don’t forget the password: Chili Cheese A-Plenty.
- Experience a heartbreaking day at Clemson: This is sort of a trick one. The Tigers have been damn near dominant at home the past few years. So, a lot of bandwagon Clemson fans have gotten used to tailgating, watching a big win and then heading to TigerTown tavern after the game. But you can’t really say you have lived in the Upstate until you have experienced the unearthly, tomblike silence of Death Valley after the Tigers have found some bizarre way to lose a game. Whether that is a botched handoff that led to a touchdown for the other team with no time left; a failed field goal returned for a touchdown in overtime; a 99-yard touchdown run by the opposition in double overtime; a 105-yard interception return for a touchdown in triple overtime; a lightning bolt hitting the game-winning touchdown pass and exploding the football before it reached Rod Gardner; a freak tsunami coming up from Lake Hartwell and causing the Tigers to fumble on the one-yard line; Strom Thurmond running onto the field and causing a delay of game that moved Clemson out of field goal range; a rip in the time-space continuum that caused the…OK…you get the idea…
Anyway, welcome to the Upstate. You have your homework. Get to it.
Thinking locally, buying locally
A lot of people make New Year’s Resolutions. There’s a good chance you made one. Or many. There is a good chance you’ve already broken them.
But we at Locally Epic want you to consider one more resolution that if you keep, can change the face of the local economy.
We want you to buy local. Go to the homegrown store for hardware. Buy a painting from a local artist. Buy a shirt at the local store and not online. We are not asking you to spend more money. Just take what you are spending now online and go to a locally owned shop. If Upstate consumers pivot $20 a week away for a year from online or a big box store to a locally owned store that would in increase the local Upstate economy by $300 million.
How is that possible?
For every dollar you spend in a Greenville-based business, 75 cents stays right here in Greenville. Even if you’re shopping at a Woodruff Road big box (and we all do, right?), 35 cents of every buck you spend stays local. In either case, that’s cash that flows through local employees, managers and owners and into other local businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations.
Compare that scenario to this: For every dollar you spend with non-local online businesses, only one cent remains in the local economy. One penny, vs. the 99 that won’t stay here. So in the bigger picture, what’s your buck worth online vs. locally – what’s it worth to you?
But let’s take that resolution to spend local a little further. What if you chose one day a month to do nothing, but purchase locally. Imagine that. Imagine the change you could make. And that is our Locally Epic challenge to you.
Every fourth Saturday of the month, just go and buy local. Now, you may be saying “that’s nice, but I getter deals online or at the big box store.” That is where the Locally Epic app comes into play. Every day, more than 35,000 users in Greenville are finding deals and promotions from local businesses. These are real savings done in real-time via Locally Epic.
We are calling it Locally Epic Saturday, and you will be hearing a lot about it. The ideas it to take the concept of Small Business Saturday, which everyone does in December, and spread it throughout the year. We are creating value.
And value takes us back to those concepts of quality of life, being fortunate enough to live in the Greenville area, and that buck that I hope is still burning a hole in your pocket. It’s your buck, and it’s your choice, but before you spend it, I do hope you’ll consider that every dollar you spend represents your opportunity to have a positive economic impact on our region and the Greenville lifestyle we’ve come to enjoy and, yes — value.