Jeanne Salts Hopes to Spur Economy with TV

Jeanne Salts has a passion for her city and a love for all things South Coast. After seeing an increase of chains and larger businesses slowly start to eat away at Santa Barbara’s homegrown retail scene, she felt a need to focus on keeping it local and supporting small businesses. So she started her own production company called Back to Work Productions.

With her two new shows, “Buy Santa Barbara!” and “Here’s the Deal Santa Barbara,” Salts borrows the home shopping format of the popular channel QVC to promote local businesses and restaurants through exclusive interviews and shopping deals sure to entice customers to keep their money in town.

“I thought that since QVC has worked so well on a national level, why not bring it to the local stores as well?” said Salts. “Everyone wants a deal, and this way we are keeping the money within the community and spotlighting local businesses that really deserve the attention.”

As a former host of Cox Media’s show “Cooking Local,” Salts uses her past experience to create a candid atmosphere when talking to business owners. On both “Buy Santa Barbara!” and “Here’s the Deal Santa Barbara,” the audience, after watching Salts discuss products with entrepreneurs, will have the opportunity to call in to get a special discount or deal. The episodes will air once a week for two months on both her YouTube Channel (BuySantaBarbara) and on local television channels.

Although Salts harbors the long-term goal of bringing this QVC-style programming to other nearby cities like Los Angeles, for now she is focused on making Santa Barbara businesses flourish.