A newly opened web portal, WeBuyCamden.com, could be fully operational in a few months, according to Ray Jones, head of the Camden Business Association.
Jones is a retired cop who now owns a security business and has seen this done elsewhere.
"There was not one place that a company could go to to find the small businesses," Jones told KYW Newsradio. "They’re scattered all over the place. So we said, 'Listen, let’s pull all of them into one umbrella.'"
Now 2,800 small businesses are on a list. The next step is to automate the system so the big guys can find the little ones easily.
"You don’t want to come into a town and then the local businesses aren’t working with you or doing business with you," Jones said. "It’s really an organic thing, but there wasn’t no tools in place to make this happen."
Jones’s group is working with the Cooper’s Ferry Partnership to get the project started, and he says initial contacts with those new, large-scale neighbors have been good. Hopes are to set up relationships that will, in time, provide more jobs to Camden residents.