Bucksport panel to survey people’s local buying habits

BUCKSPORT – The Bucksport Marketing Committee will use three surveys to gauge consumer interest in downtown businesses.

The surveys are designed to give the town’s economic development committee a “snapshot” of people’s buying habits, according to Economic Development Director David Milan. The results will give the committee a basis to develop a marketing strategy for promoting downtown businesses.

“We’re hoping to learn what drives people’s purchasing decisions,” Milan said Tuesday. “If we’re going to market downtown for businesses, we’ve got to know who we’re marketing it to.”

The surveys will target three different groups: visitors to downtown Bucksport; residents from the town and the communities of Orland and Verona Island; and the downtown merchants themselves. Town councilors last week allocated $2,797 to pay for the surveys. That amount includes printing, and hiring a professional surveyor to conduct the face-to-face surveys.

The visitor survey will be done by the surveyor approaching people walking in the downtown area and asking them a set of questions about why they are in town and what they plan to do.

The survey of business owners will be a mail-in questionnaire that asks about their businesses and their shopping habits.

The resident survey is more extensive than the other two and will be conducted door-to- door with the surveyor using a form to ask questions about residents’ buying habits in town and out of town.

In addition to the door-to-door interviews, copies of the survey will be inserted in the local weekly newspaper this week, and residents who do not receive a visit will be able to mail in their responses and comments.

Those responding to the survey will be entered in a raffle drawing for items donated by several downtown businesses.

The responses will be used to develop a marketing strategy for the businesses in the downtown area. The marketing plan was one of the priorities included in a downtown revitalization plan that the council adopted earlier this year.

“The overall goal is to increase the number of local citizens who buy locally,” Milan said. “We want to convince more local people to spend their money locally. If we can do that it will have a positive impact on all businesses in Bucksport.”

The door-to-door surveys will be done during the next few weeks, Milan said, and the whole process should be completed by Labor Day. He said he expects to have the marketing plan developed by the end of September and the committee likely will present it to the council at its first meeting in October.