The Crookston Area Chamber and Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority announced last month they were going to run an incentive program that turns receipts from shopping local into Chamber Bucks. Chamber Executive Director Terri Heggie said that as of Wednesday night, the Chamber had received more than $18,400 in receipts spent at Crookston businesses. “We had somebody that last night who submitted $536 in receipts,” said Heggie. “Another household submitted $913 worth of receipts, that is fabulous spending locally, but we do have a cap of $500.00 of reimbursable receipts per household. For example, submit $200.00 in receipts receive $20.00 in Chamber Bucks, submit $400.00 in receipts receive $40.00, any receipts which add up to more than $500.00 will receive $50.00 in Chamber Bucks. Doing this gives you money to go right back out and support local. We have seen so many receipts come in that I wonder what we are going to hit by April 30 when this is done. I’m excited to see what number we can hit.”
The amount of local spending submitted jumped almost $5,000 overnight to $18,482.58 as of Friday morning.
Heggie said the Chamber Buck program incentive is simple, shop local, and collect $10 in Chamber Bucks for every $100 spent. “The Chamber Buck program incentive that we have going right now is going fabulous,” said Heggie. “This started on March 30 and runs until April 30. It’s so simple to take part in; simply do shopping locally. That can be any retail, restaurant; the only thing excluded from this would be alcohol or tobacco. Go out, do your shopping here in Crookston. Get your food to go, shop at Hugo’s, at Walmart. Wherever you are gathering your receipts from, we want to see them. For example, yesterday afternoon, I saw a line out at Taco John’s that went well out into the street. Anybody that was there eating yesterday, that’s a perfect thing to do, is to submit your receipts from eating out yesterday. What we are doing with every $100 increment is returning to you Chamber Buck dollars that may be used at area Chamber members.”
Receipts can be submitted through a dropbox at the Crookston Chamber office, mail, or via email, explains Heggie. “It’s very easy to submit your receipts,” said Heggie. “You can put them in an envelope and have your name, address, and phone number. And put them in our mailbox outside of our office at 103 S Broadway. If you would prefer, you can mail them to the Crookston Chamber PO BOX 115. You can make copies of them as well and can email them off to me or send them to me through messenger. My email address is theggie@visitcrookston.com.”
Heggie said Crookston’s businesses appreciate the support and encourages keeping dollars local. “It’s clearly showing that our Crookston community is supporting local and keeping those dollars here, which is so important right now,” said Heggie. “And I can tell you that our businesses appreciate it. As I’ve been out and about, either face-to-face or over the phone talking to area businesses, they appreciate the support. They are still seeing consistent traffic. Let’s keep that up. Let’s not head west to go shopping. Let’s keep those dollars right here in the Crookston community and keep us growing.”
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