Residents spent more than $60,000 in 13 days in response to the byHaines “Shop Local and Save” program—and organizers say they want to promote another round in time for holiday shopping.
The Haines Chamber of Commerce and Haines Economic Development Corporation collaborated on the program that awarded $100 in gift certificates, paid for by $20,000 in CARES Act funds, to the first 200 people who spent $300 on discretionary purchases in town.
While the program aimed to inject $80,000 into the local economy, HEDC executive director David Simmons said that number is even higher.
“It’s likely this program stimulated over 100,000 dollars in spending because some people submitted more than 400 dollars.”
Chamber executive director Tracy Harmon said she saw receipts that totaled more than $700.
Lutak Lumber owner Chip Lende said he noticed an increase in traffic to his hardware store during the first two weeks of October.
“Some customers purchased materials in advance of their needs to qualify for the vouchers,” Lende said. “Others bought things they wanted rather than needed and justified the purchase because of the voucher program. It was certainly a success and was a great way to distribute COVID funds to residents.”
Lutak Lumber and Olerud’s Market Center were among the top four businesses residents selected for gift cards.
Olerud’s Market Center manager Tyler Swinton said while they didn’t notice a noteworthy increase in sales for discretionary spending, the gift certificates were beneficial.
“We definitely saw it on the back end with people choosing our store for the gift certificates,” Swinton said. “I think this was a great program and there was a significant buzz going around with people wanting to get out to spend money at local businesses.”
Harmon said they plan to ask the assembly to approve another round of CARES Act funding for another shop-local program to run on Black Friday, Nov. 27 through Dec. 11.
“Although that would be just a short, two-week round the idea behind the timing is that it gives our local retailers the competitive edge over online giants like Amazon during the busiest holiday shopping days of the year – Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday,” Harmon said.
Organizers will make some adjustments to the program including the possibility of shoppers receiving gift cards as soon as they turn in their receipts.
“The goal would be that applicants can turn in their receipts both at the HEDC and chamber office and receive their gift certificate right on the spot,” Simmons said.
Harmon said allowing participants to redeem two $50 gift certificates at separate stores helped spread spending to different businesses. She said organizers will also discuss lowering the spending threshold below $300 so discretionary spending will be even more spread out rather than spending money on one large purchase.
“We really wanted to target the businesses that fell through the cracks during this pandemic and encourage discretionary spending to help out local small businesses that have struggled,” Harmon said.
Harmon said organizers will propose giving $100 gift cards for every $200 spent in town on discretionary spending, and allow individuals to qualify for up to two gift cards.
The top four businesses that shoppers chose for gift cards included Lutak Lumber, Olerud’s Market Center, Haines Home Building Supply and The Bookstore.
Checks were cut to businesses and gift cards were mailed out last week.
The injection of local spending comes as the Haines Borough is down 23 percent in sales taxes, roughly $337,000, from January through June of 2020 compared to the same time in 2019, according to borough records. The borough received $251,826 less in sales tax in July 2020, a 50 percent decrease, compared to July 2019.