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Merchants Use Incentives To Lure Shoppers
The reason is obvious. Sales tax revenue is down across the metro area. October sales tax collections declined more than 20-percent in Bixby and Jenks. Broken Arrow, Tulsa and Sand Springs also had double-digit drops.
Now more than ever, community leaders are hoping that holiday incentives will improve those numbers.
There are 90 merchants in the Christmas campaign called Buy Broken Arrow. Every time a customer walks into a participating store, they receive a raffle ticket. And, they get another for every ten dollars they spend in that store.
The winning raffle tickets can be worth thousands of dollars. Hilarie Kennedy was one of the 2008 winners.
"I checked my ticket and I couldn't believe it. I had won. It was exciting, every exciting."
Last year, she won the two-thousand dollar prize.
Merchants say some of their customers delay shopping until the prize money program is up and running.
"People come in to get the ticket and purchase something," says Dayna Matheny, owner of Star Jewelers. "They come here instead of going to the mall or somewhere else because it's local and they get a chance to win."
"It does bring more people and everyone wants to win the ticket," says Becky Roller, owner of Back Creek Deli. "We had the winning ten-thousand dollar ticket two years ago."
She says in this tough economy, they will do whatever it takes to attract Christmas shoppers and give them their raffle ticket.
"They're saying 'this is the winning ticket'. Just about everyone says this is the one that's going to win this year. This is excitement and this helps bring people out."
The merchants in the communities usually pick those winning numbers the week before Christmas. And, in most cases, you don't have to be present to win. You do however, have to have the winning ticket.
Other towns that have Christmas raffles include Bixby and Sapulpa.
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Latest Comments on "Merchants Use Incentives To Lure Shoppers"
posted by: Toners777 on 11:07 pm on 11/13/09
I live in Tulsa, plan on spending my Christmas dollars here, makes the merchants happy, makes my kids happy, and I'm happy, cause I didn't get stuck in traffic, or make a 30 minute drive to do 10 minutes worth of shopping.
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