Posted: Sunday, May 17, 2009 7:27 am

Another existing retail store is planning a move to The Avenue.

Dress Barn is planning to move from 1985 Old Fort Parkway, near Target, to The Avenue, according to plans submitted to the city of Murfreesboro.

More details weren’t available by press time.

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There is a national campaign going on to save independent businesses that Murfreesboro’s locally owned businesses and residents ought to check out.

With the slogan “Save your local economy…three stores at a time, The 3/50 Project is attempting to save the brick and mortar stores that the United States was built on.

Former stationary storeowner Cinda Baxter started the campaign because she understood the pain that retailers were feeling when the economy sank.

“We ask consumers to think about which three stores they’d miss if they disappeared, then remind them to return there,” Baxter, now a retail consultant and professional speaker, said in a press release on the campaign’s Web site at www.the350project.net. “Shoppers have become so rooted in thinking about the essentials that they’ve forgotten about the little gift store on the corner whose owner remembers their name.

The campaign suggests spending a total of $50 per month between these three stores to help support these businesses.

“Fifty comes from the idea that if even half the employed population spent a mere $50 per month in locally owned retail stores, those purchases would generate more than $42.6 billion in revenue,” Baxter said. “That’s a huge impact for a relatively small investment.”

Also for every $100 spent in independently owned stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures, according to campaign materials. Only $43 out of $100 spent in national chains stay in the local community.

“In essence, the whole thing boils down to pick 3, spend 50, save the economy. Its really that simple,” Baxter said.

The 3/50 Project provides promotional materials such as fliers that member businesses can pass out in their communities, countertop signs and banners on its Web site.

So far, no Murfreesboro companies are involved in the campaign.

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Highlights from Business News at Murfreesboropost.com: Youth Leadership Rutherford, a program under the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, graduated 34 local high school juniors and seniors recently.

Linebaugh Library and Project PASS are offering one-on-one resume assistance at the library from 1 p.m.-2 p.m. every Monday, and from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. each Tuesday.

Edward Jones agents donate $5,000 to the Heart of Tennessee Chapter of the American Red Cross for tornado relief.

Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.