Stick Around Downtown keeps shoppers local

By Adelle Ellis, Times Reporter

As a way to keep people shopping local and to bring more business to Strathmore’s downtown core this summer, one businesswoman has taken it upon herself to put together a promotion with the help of 26 businesses to offer rewards to loyal local shoppers.
The inaugural Stick Around Downtown Strathmore in July event started on July 1 and will run until July 31.
“Medicine Hat actually did this (last) July and it was very successful, so I thought that it would be a good promotion for Strathmore downtown businesses,” said Marlene Risdon, downtown business owner of The Rack on 3rd and creator of the Strathmore event.
Participating in the event is as easy as shopping local and visiting local stores and businesses. There are 26 participating businesses downtown between Second Avenue and Fourth Avenue and from Lakeside Boulevard to Fourth Street.
There will be “passports” available for pickup at any of the participating locations. From there, participants only need to support local businesses to receive a sticker on their passport for that associated business. Once a certain number of stickers is received, they can enter their passport into three different draws for prizes.
An entry of one-to-four stickers collected can be used to win a prize valued at $50, five-to-nine stickers has an associated prize valued at $300 and if the savvy shoppers collect over 10 stickers, their name goes in to win a prize valued at $1,000. All prizes were donated from the participating businesses.
Passports can be dropped off at any of the participating businesses by 5 p.m. on July 31 for that entry to be valid. Shoppers can enter their name more than once depending on how many stickers they receive.
Risdon hopes the event will bring plenty of shoppers to the downtown area to see what local businesses have to offer residents, along with shoppers getting their chances to enter their names for some of the great prizes.
Success of the event will be based on how many passports are handed in. Risdon hopes for a great turnout and to make the Stick Around Downtown Strathmore in July a yearly affair.
“Our main goal of doing this promotion is to get people to come down and explore all the businesses that are in downtown Strathmore,” said Risdon.