SWCC launches back to school promotion to encourage local shopping

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Strathmore Wheatland Chamber of Commerce (SWCC) has launched a new campaign for the start of the school year to try and encourage folks to get their supplies from local businesses.

The promotion is dubbed “Back to School Bingo,” and bingo cards have been delivered to all participating businesses for the public to pick up.

Launched on Aug. 29, Hayley Poirier, SWCC representative, said the idea is to get customers in the door of participating local businesses and browsing for items they may need.

“As an example, Value Drug Mart will be one of the places that somebody can drop by, pick up their bingo card and follow what the task is at Value Drug Mart – and that’s to look at school supplies,” said Poirier. “When you do that, you are going to get an initial from the folks over at Value Drug Mart and then you can go off to another business. What you’re trying to do is get a line on your bingo card.”

For folks who visit and complete requested tasks at enough businesses to get a bingo, they can text a photo of their initialed card to 1045 to be entered into a draw for a prize. 

Poirier said the idea came about as the SWCC wanted to ensure people remembered to do their back-to-school shopping within Strathmore to support local business.

“You have a great selection of stores and businesses to choose from, and so we thought why not have something fun that,” said Poirier. “The SWCC, we are always looking to make sure that we are looking out for our members and our local businesses … and it was a roundtable discussion we were having when we decided we need to have a promotion for our businesses.”

For participating stores, it’s an effectively zero cost promotion to participate in. All business owners have to do is hand out and sign the bingo cards.

Though the Back to School Bingo promotion is not specifically aligned with any particular sale or other event, Poirier estimated some participating businesses may have an ongoing sales or other promotion going on at the same time. 

Back to School Bingo is open to folks of all ages who wish to come out and participate. Poirier said though the theme is back to school, it’s something that encompasses potentially everyone.

The promotion will be open and people will be able to submit photos of their bingo cards until the middle of September.