Gift cards bringing $18K to downtown
‘Our Town’ grant benefits 21 businesses through card program
A Consumers Energy “Our Town” gift card grant to Clawson will have plenty of people shopping at downtown businesses.
Joan Horton, executive director of the city’s Downtown Development Authority, said shoppers snapped up gift cards recently that will have them spending a total of $18,000 at 21 businesses.
“We did a flash sale,” of the cards Saturday, Jan. 16, she said. “That money was spent in three hours on 205 (card) purchases online for use at service, retail, restaurants and other businesses.”
The 21 businesses are those that have been taking part in the DDA’s Downtown Clawson Dollars gift card program that started more than a month ago. The Our Town grant complements the funding for the DDA’s gift card program.
However, Horton explained the DDA’s gift card program was suspended for the weekend that the Consumers Energy funded gift cards were sold. People who purchased the cards have to use them
by April 31.
One condition of the Consumers Energy gift card grant was that it would be spent on cards that are a dollar-for-dollar match with what shoppers spend. Consumers put up $9,000, and shoppers spent $9,000 of their own money, Horton said.
Consumer Energy rolled out its Our Town gift card effort early in December in 55 communities through local downtown organizations and chambers of commerce groups in the state’s Lower Peninsula.
The energy company put up a total of $500,000 to support its gift card program, spending from $3,000 to $40,000 in each of the communities.
“Small businesses are the backbone of the communities we serve, and every community has seen those businesses feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Lauren Youngdahl Snyder, a Consumers Energy vice president, said in a statement when the program was rolled out.
Clawson’s DDA decided to wait to use the energy company’s gift cards until after the New Year, Horton said.
“We waited until Jan. 16 because it was thought that restaurants would possibly reopen that day” with state restrictions, Horton said. “It turned out the restaurants didn’t reopen then, but people were still able to use the Our Town gift cards for carry outs that day.”
Restaurants in Michigan will be allowed to reopen at 25 percent capacity Feb. 1.
Clawson’s DDA started its Downtown Clawson Dollars gift card program in November.
For each $25, $50 or $100 e-gift card purchased, buyers get another 20 percent of credit on the value of each card from the DDA. On an average $50 card, that’s equal to $10.
The Downtown Development Authority raised money to help businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and some of the funds were dedicated to Downtown Clawson Dollars program.
The e-gift cards are being used continuously, Horton said.