By Justin Aufdermauer
Executive Director
We all know that construction has had a significant impact on our community, specifically our downtown businesses. Yet we can all constructively support these businesses through the trials they are facing. “Construction” is not shutting businesses down, nor can it. What can potentially shut a business down is us, the people of the community, not supporting them through their temporary hardship because we lose sight of them or because we avoid downtown due to a little inconvenience.
As an incentive this fall, the Chamber has organized a $1,000 downtown shopping spree. It’s kind of like a contest, it definitely supports our downtown businesses during construction, and it’s sure to be fun. We are calling it our #Constructdowntown Sweepstakes.
Here is how it works: anytime that you shop at one of our downtown businesses between Oct. 1, 2017 – and Dec. 29, 2017 you can bring in your receipt to the Chamber office (208 Main Ave.) and have it validated. Once validated, you will receive an entry form that will enter you in both a weekly giveaway and a grand prize drawing. Your receipts don’t have to be validated on the same day that you shop; you can bring them in whenever, but you can only enter once a day until the end of the promotion.
As an additional incentive to come shop downtown, we will have weekly giveaways. Each week a downtown business is sponsoring the giveaway, and at the end of the week a winner will be chosen by a random drawing from that week’s entries. The winner will receive a prize donated by the sponsoring business. You don’t have to be present to win.
All tickets from each week’s drawing will be put into the grand prize drawing for a $1,000 downtown shopping spree. The grand prize winner will be drawn around New Years.
You may be thinking to yourself, why don’t you draw before Christmas so people have Christmas money? We considered that option, but the reality is that whether we like it or not, we all spend more money around the holidays already. By waiting until the New Year we hope that two things happen: First, that you spend money downtown during the holidays to earn more and more entries. Second, that the spending of the $1,000 grand prize will have a greater impact downtown during the slower winter months. Remember, as much as this is about the customer, it is also about helping ensure our local entrepreneurs have a successful season.
You probably recall in the past we have organized cash mobs at specific businesses as a way to boost their sales. These cash mobs have been widely successful and often help raise awareness when a business or service may be on the verge of a closure. So why aren’t we just having a variety of cash mobs this winter? This #constructdowntown promotion covers a much longer period of time and has the ability to positively impact a significant amount of businesses, instead of just one or two. We are hoping that by engaging the community with these weekly giveaways and a grand prize drawing, we will see a boost in the downtown economy for the rest of the year, and not just on a single day.
Remember that anywhere you spend money between First and Fifth and Stillwell and Laurel is eligible for an entry into both the weekly drawing and the grand prize shopping spree. The things you do every day and the special shopping trips you make can all qualify you – just bring your receipts to the Chamber at 208 Main Avenue for validation during regular business hours (Monday-Friday; 9-5pm). You can enter once a day, every day. And be sure to use the hashtag #constructdowntown in your social media posts to raise awareness about this fun, new downtown promotion and customer appreciation recognition.
And for legal purposes: No entry necessary. Official Rules available at tillamookchamber.org/sweepstakes.