Sderot supermarket (archives)
Photo: Ohad Avidan Kaynar
New project aims to return buyers to Gaza vicinity
As part of campaign, some 1,000 businesses in Sderot, Gaza vicinity communities to offer their services to private people, companies across country
Despite the relative calm prevailing in Gaza vicinity communities these days, local businesses have yet to recover from the rocket barrages which hit the area only a few months ago.
As part of the project, some 1,000 business owners will offer their services to private people and companies across Israel.
In light of the difficult situation, the "Buying with Love from Sderot and the Gaza Vicinity" project was scheduled to be launched Wednesday with the aim of advancing the purchase of products from business owners in the area.
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The campaign, which will last three months, will be accompanied by television, radio and internet ads.
Those interested in locating a business owner in the area can do so through a website launched by the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry under the banner "Buying with Love".
"One will be able to find any service provider – artists, carpentry workshops, grocery stores, etc," said the project's manager, Colonel (Res.) Yossi Gilad. "In fact, any person who visits the website will try and find the service provider, and if he doesn't, we'll help him.
"The prices will be extremely reasonable, the service will be excellent, and in general we call on the residents to arrive in Sderot and the area during the mid-holidays, stay in local guesthouses and east in local restaurants, and just tour the place and get to know it."
Shimon Edri, who is in charge of Sderot's business development unit, added that "our main problem is to bring back those buyers who left the service providers in Sderot and moved to other places. Now they are there because they got used to it, or perhaps because they believe that the worst is still ahead of us."
The project's management explained that the region's residents and businesses are not asking for donations, but for help through purchases.
"The real and great force is in the hands of each and every one of us," explained an official involved in the project.
"Only half an hour from Tel Aviv you will be able to find a special region which is equal in its beauty to northern Israel and filled with tourist attractions and guesthouses of the highest quality. The businesses provide a variety of services and products, some unique to the region itself."
