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B2B Stories
B2B Stories

Simon Says: Big difference between CSRA counties in economic growth

As 2022 begins, we now know how hard COVID-19 hit the local economy in 2020, such as the speed with which official government data on real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is released. For the Augusta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), real GDP fell by 1.4% in 2020. However, the effect of COVID-19 was not uniform across all the counties in the MSA as shown in the table below. Burke County actually saw real GDP grow by 5.6% while Richmond County saw the biggest decline at 2.7%. County % change real GDP

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Dr. Simon Medcalfe, AU Economics Professor January 5, 2022 No Comments
B2B Stories

Program supports military families and local businesses

After growing up in a military family and retiring as a lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Army, Brian Burns wanted to find a way to give back to soldiers and their families. Burns – Managing Partner of FMI Defense, LLC – launched the Tee 4 Troops program in 2013. The program, which has raised over $1 million to support military families, allows golfers to play for free by waiving greens fees at five Army and Air Force golf courses throughout the U.S., including Gordon Lakes Golf Club at Fort Gordon,

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Josh Heath January 5, 2022 No Comments
B2B Stories

Naming Yourself

  Don MacNeil is the former Marketing Director of Windsor Jewelers and long-time on-air radio professional.   Is it just me, or… Naming Yourself It always amuses me that when someone or something changes its mind we’re all supposed to salute and go along with it, but in truth a lot of us don’t. This especially applies to when companies rename themselves, and recently we’ve been hit with a couple of major examples. Mark Zuckerberg wants to win the race to a so-called metaverse, so now he’s asking us to

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Don MacNeil January 4, 2022 No Comments
B2B Stories

Simon Says: Economic Resolutions!

Are you contemplating a dry January or a Veganuary? Want to exercise more and eat less? Many of us make New Year resolutions about this time of the year, only for them to fall apart before the end of January. Not sure you can make the commitment last, economics is here to help with the anti-charity! The StickK website (https://www.stickk.com) was started by Yale professors, Ian Ayers and Dean Karlan. In graduate school, Karlan had found himself putting on weight as had a fellow grad student. They set up a

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Dr. Simon Medcalfe, AU Economics Professor December 29, 2021 No Comments
B2B Stories

Defeating Non-Attention

  Don MacNeil is the former Marketing Director of Windsor Jewelers and long-time on-air radio professional.   Is it just me, or… Defeating Non-Attention Marketing lore has it that esteemed advertising smart guy Ron Marshall once ran a crazy experiment to find out how many ads he was exposed to during a typical day. He decided to spot as many commercials as possible and tabulate them in a 24-hour period. By lunch he was at 487 and, amazed, decided not to continue. Volumes have been written decrying the daily onslaught

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Don MacNeil December 28, 2021 No Comments
B2B Stories

New hotel coming to Grovetown

Visitors to the Augusta area will soon have a new hotel option in Columbia County. A Maryland-based hotel development group has purchased a 2.7-acre lot and plans to build a new Fairfield by Marriott hotel (see photo above provided by Meybohm) near I-20 in Grovetown. Construction on the hotel, which will be located next to Home2 Suites near both Kroger and Walmart, is expected to begin by the end of the year. Meybohm Commercial Properties represented the development group in purchasing the land. Fairfield has nearly 1,000 locations worldwide, including

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Josh Heath December 27, 2021 No Comments
B2B Stories

2021 CSRA Company Awards

Tis’ the season for annual awards. The Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce gave out a few awards to entrepreneurs and companies. Our Neil Gordon has the visual proof!

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Neil Gordon December 27, 2021 No Comments
Financial/Investing

Simon Says: Economic value of your holiday gifts

“Father Christmas, give us the money Don’t mess around with those silly toys” The Kinks, Father Christmas At this time of gift giving, it is worth considering whether the exchange of presents is efficient. Well at least to an economist it is! Famously, if only in economic circles, Joel Waldfogel in 1993 suggested gift giving was inefficient because it destroyed about 10 percent to a third of the value of the gift. Think of the aunt or uncle that gave you that wonderful (read terrible) sweater last year. They bought

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Dr. Simon Medcalfe, AU Economics Professor December 22, 2021 No Comments
B2B Stories

Film business booming in Augusta as partnership is formed

Because Augusta’s film industry has experienced explosive growth in recent years, Augusta Technical College wants to prepare people to work in that industry. The college has partnered with the Georgia Film Academy and a local company called Indiegrip.com LLC (see photo above story) to begin offering an 18-hour non-credit film production certification program in January 2022. Classes will meet on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the cost will be $750. Rick Kelly – Indiegrip.com’s owner/operator, is excited to be involved in the program. “Our mission has always

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Josh Heath December 22, 2021 No Comments
Consumer Stories

Local tourism marketing agency celebrates milestone

Destination Augusta, which helps the local tourism and hospitality industries by attracting visitors and promoting the CSRA, celebrated its 25th anniversary in December. Each year, these industries generate more than $1 billion in revenue and support over 20,000 jobs in the Augusta Metropolitan Statistical Area. Much of that revenue comes from visitor spending. “We have achieved this milestone through creativity, perseverance, and the hard work and determination of so many professional staff members, the many leaders on our Board of Directors, and committed partners and stakeholders,” says Bennish Brown, Destination

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Josh Heath December 22, 2021 No Comments
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