Eye on the prize
Local company makes promoting local businesses its business
Keep it Local OK encourages consumers to support local, independent businesses.
Shop local. That is the goal of Keep it Local OK, a business encouraging consumers to support independent businesses in Oklahoma City and across the state.
“We exist for one simple reason — to help people to discover the best local spots in town,” its website states.
It does that by encouraging independent, Oklahoma-owned businesses to join its network.
Those that do (more than 300 businesses currently are enrolled) are featured on the Keep it Local OK website, get window decals and sell Keep it Local OK cards to consumers.
Consumers who buy and carry a Keep it Local OK card, meanwhile, get rewards from participating businesses where they shop — small gifts or discounts on the services they receive — plus, they get the added enjoyment of supporting a great local business or discovering a new local favorite.
That provides yet another benefit for those businesses. They get happy, loyal customers who are likely to spread the word about their experiences.
“Happy cardholders, happy businesses — we call that a WIN-WIN!” the company’s website states.
Business co-owners Bryce Bandy and Chris Branson launched Keep It Local OK in Oklahoma City in 2010 with nothing more than a love for the state of Oklahoma and its unique local businesses.
Their hope was they could work with other like-minded people to build a better local community.
The network has continued to grow, expanding outside Oklahoma City to include businesses in surrounding communities and in Tulsa.
Each year on Black Friday, Keep it Local OK offers a new version of its card to consumers to purchase for $15 that is good for the following calendar year. Each year’s card features art created by a local artist.
A dollar from each card purchase is donated to selected charities to help them provide services to their clients.
The selected charities for the 2017 card are Positive Tomorrows, an Oklahoma City-based organization that provides educational services to homeless youths, and Street School in Tulsa, which is a private school that tries to reduce the dropout rate for local youths there by keeping them in school and by helping them prepare for their future educational and career goals.
This year, Keep it Local OK Accounts Executive Corrie Matchell said the company has 25,000 card holders, a number that grows each year.
As for the businesses who belong to the network, they must be privately held, local and independently owned. A business can join the network for $500 a year.
Most participating businesses are in Oklahoma City. But Matchell said Tulsa has about 50 businesses, and others are located in other Oklahoma communities.
“We have been expanding into Tulsa for the past three or four years,” Matchell said, “but since we don’t have a physical office there, it has been a little bit of a slow grow.
“Now it is one of our fastest growing areas. We have added five new Tulsa businesses in the past month or two.”
Various types of businesses belong, including restaurants and other types of food and drink retailers. But there are others, too, such as towing and moving companies, barber shops and health spas, jewelers, pharmacies and car dealerships.
Participating businesses not only can be found on Keep it Local OK’s website. They also put Keep it Local decals in their storefronts.
A co-owner of one participating business, Beck’s Garage, at 4217 N Western, enthusiastically endorses the program.
Theresa Beck, an Orange County, Calif., native, said it didn’t take her long after arriving here to realize the meaningful connection Oklahomans historically have enjoyed with local retailers.
Because of that, Beck started looking around to see how the business might be able to invest back into the local community, and she said Keep it Local OK has been a perfect tool enabling it to do so.
Beck said the decision to join was good because it doesn’t help support only Beck’s Garage. It also supports other local businesses, plus, the charities thatare helped out by card sales.
“When a consumer supports a mom-and-pop, or individually owned local business, that means a lot to me,” Beck said.
“It is a really good way as a business owner to say I recognize the importance of local merchants in our community, and that I also recognize the importance of local shoppers who patronize those merchants.
“People get excited to use their cards,” she said, “and we get excited about using our card, too.”
Beck said the garage would belong to the network for as long as it exists.
We have been expanding into Tulsa for the past three or four years, but since we don’t have a physical office there, it has been a little bit of a slow grow. Now it is one of our fastest growing areas. We have added five new Tulsa businesses in the past month or two.” Keep it Local OK Accounts Executive Corrie Matchell