Downtown Stratford Business Improvement Area (BIA) has announced the return of its Ten Bucks Back program.
From Feb. 15 to 28, shoppers and diners can receive a $10 gift certificate for spending $100 (pre-tax) at downtown businesses.
Participants can bring their receipts to the Stratford Royal Bank at 33 Downie St. (Monday to Friday) or to the Tourism office at 47 Downie St. (Saturdays) to receive a gift certificate that can be used until April 30 at participating downtown businesses.
For every $100 spent in the two-week period, customers can submit their receipts in exchange for a $10 gift certificate, up to a maximum of $500 (pre-tax).
Full program details can be found online.
Downtown Stratford BIA has allotted $10,000 toward the program, and noted that it is first come, first served until the maximum has been reached.
"Ten Bucks Back is a perk and a great incentive to shop and dine downtown. I see stories in the news all the time about the lack of customer service at big box retailers so this incentive will allow people to experience exemplary customer service by front line entrepreneurs," Jamie Pritchard, GM of Downtown Stratford BIA, told StratfordToday. "Basically you get paid for just shopping and dining."
Funding helped with local initiatives
Last year, the Downtown Stratford BIA encouraged and supported new public art, expanded bike infrastructure, organized community events like Winter Wander-land, featuring a free carousel, artisan demonstrations, scavenger hunts, and prizes designed to bring visitors and vibrancy to downtown Stratford.
The local BIA received a non-repayable contribution of $55,000 from RTO4 through FedDev Ontario to help accomplish these initiatives.
Pritchard said the organization was excited to receive the grant to produce a public art policy that will be used as a guiding plan to simplify endeavors as they continue to expand art installations.
Pritchard said the grant was also used to produce art installations such as the mural, 'The Perfectionist', by Kellen Hatanaka and to animate downtown windows with snowflake art by local student artists. Nine student artists worked on about 30 windows and the majority of those were small businesses.
All of the students were paid for their artwork.
Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc.was incorporated in 2010 as part of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism’s request to build and support a competitive tourism industry in the region. RTO4 supports Wellington County, Waterloo Region, Perth and Huron County in developing and implementing the destination management tactics to encompass the diverse interests of the area and grow the tourism economy.
The Winter Wander-land event wrapped up in December, with a promotional campaign designed to make a magical winter experience that featured local art, a historic carousel and an artisan blacksmith providing demonstrations of his craft. The snowflake storefront window animation that launched in November.
All projects were designed to attract visitors to various locations downtown.
"These are exciting times and I am personally thrilled to be involved," Pritchard said.
