The Scout Guide is a collection of features from local businesses intended to showcase the culture of cities and regions where it is published. In Oxford, local editor Abbe Barfield wants to create a guide readers use every day to decide which businesses they will support.
The franchise has distributed around 200 books across the U.S., five of which feature Mississippi locations: the Gulf Coast, Oxford, Natchez, Miss., Jackson, Miss., and the Tupelo and northeast Mississippi version set for release in 2027. The Scout Guide is distributed for free across each city.
Now a nationwide company, The Scout Guide was first published in 2010 in Charlottesville, Va. The publication has become a major form of promotion for local businesses across the country. Oxford launched its first guide in April 2026 under Abbe Barfield.
Barfield is in charge of all decisions related to the Oxford edition. She follows brand strategy and guidelines set by The Scout Guide headquarters.
“My really short, little elevator speech is that it’s a curated guide of the best in local businesses. (It is) something that you use every day,” Barfield said.
Organizations and individuals who wish to be featured in a Scout Guide edition must first be approved by the local editors. Demand for a spot in the book is extremely high, so local editors have to assess how to budget the limited page space in order to keep the book balanced.
With cities across the country creating Scout Guides, no single edition will look exactly the same, and there are tons of places to take inspiration from for editors.
“I sit down and look at (other guides) because we always say the best form of flattery is copying someone,” Barfield said. “That’s where we get inspiration for our photo shoots, which is a big part of what we do. We need to make those pictures look beautiful and tell the story about our members in a very visual, impactful manner.”
The photo shoots are used for spreads in the books and are built in collaboration between photographers and businesses via meetings and mood boards.
After having been in Oxford for several years, Barfield still finds herself learning new things about the community and incorporating new ways to tell stories. When working with local businesses, Barfield has been able to merge stories across different companies where readers may not perceive a connection.
“We were talking to a construction company that might be in volume two, and he was telling us about the redesign on one of our members, Vivian Mae, (a) storefront (on) the Square,” Barfield said. “He said that (it) is one of the oldest structures in Oxford, and he was telling us about when they went and did the remodel, about the brick that they found and they exposed, which is … the brick wall that they have in the boutique now. We need (the construction company) to be (in) the guide so we can tell the story between the two of (them), because you wouldn’t think a construction company and boutique would have a story together.”
Telling local stories and making guides unique to a city’s culture is The Scout Guide’s biggest goal. The guides aim to educate readers on enterprises in a community and to engulf the audience in the town.
Barfield recently purchased the rights to produce “The Scout Guide” in Tupelo. Her team will launch its first volume in October 2027.
“I met a perfect candidate to be the assistant editor there. (She) is from Tupelo, loves Tupelo (and) is very well connected,” Barfield said. “She was a great addition to my editor team there. We’re taking the process and procedure that we put in place in Oxford and applying it to Tupelo, but then (we will add) that local flavor.”
With online shopping widely available, there is even more value in physical products solely dedicated to spotlighting local brick-and-mortar stores.
“I think (The Scout Guide is) even more vitally important because people are getting burnt out on everything being digital. It’s something you can actually put your hands on, … savor and take that mental break from the social media world,” Barfield said.
The Scout Guide Oxford Volume Two will be launched in April 2027.
