It’s something we’ve discussed in this space before, but as the Christmas shopping season officially kicks off Friday, it’s timely to mention again.

Whenever possible this holiday season and throughout the rest of the year, we encourage our readers to shop in Mower County.

Austin and its surrounding communities can pretty much offer the same selection as Rochester or the Twin Cities can, with the exception of stores such as Best Buy and Fleet Farm and other certain businesses.

But we do have many other places, including a nice mixture of both big box stores and smaller specialty shops, the kinds of places that make smaller towns great.

The Austin Area Chamber of Commerce is supporting buying locally through its Buy Mower/Grow Mower campaign, which simply asks residents to shift 10 percent of the funds they spend out of town and keep them in Mower County.

The chamber has even sweetened the deal for the holidays by offering shoppers a chance to win up to $1,000 in Chamber Bucks by simply filling out a pledge form at www.IBUYMOWER.com and then shopping during the week of Dec. 14 through 20. The chamber will then draw one name from those who pledged, and the winner will be announced Dec. 24.

For each dollar that person spent during the week ending Dec. 20, the chamber will reimburse them up to $1,000 in chamber bucks.

Shopping locally is convenient, benefits our local economy and is crucial for our businesses countywide.

And this holiday season, it may even be worth $1,000.