Destination Osoyoos has launched a ‘Shop Local’ campaign to give a major boost to retail businesses in Osoyoos over the next year and provide a stimulus to the town’s economy. The campaign was announced today at a kickoff ceremony held at an Osoyoos department store, attended by civic and business leaders.

The economic development organization has teamed up with Local Benefits, a company which recently began a discount shopping program in the region, to provide up to 1,500 Osoyoos households with one free membership in the new Osoyoos program, called ‘Shop Local’.

Each member who signs up for Shop Local receives a card entitling them to a variety of discounts and special offers at participating Osoyoos stores and businesses. Already about 100 local stores have joined the Shop Local campaign, and more will likely join in the coming weeks.

Destination Osoyoos Chief Executive Officer Glenn Mandziuk says Shop Local is a targeted program designed to give an immediate stimulus to local business and encourage local shopping during times of the year where there is a decreased level of tourism activity. It ends on Jan. 31, 2010.

Mandziuk says the participating stores receive advertising and promotion carried out by the Shop Local program at no cost except for the discounts they give their Shop Local customers – and the goal is that they will also see an increase in business.

Research suggests that for durable goods alone, the local retail market potential is over $31 million annually in Osoyoos. Market capture rates vary across business sectors, but estimates indicate that approximately 50 percent of this local durable-goods market potential is leaking out of the community and going elsewhere – a trend that the Shop Local program hopes to change.

“Towns like Osoyoos, with 5,000 people, always face the challenge of competing for business with larger cities,” Mandziuk says. “Yet Osoyoos has great businesses offering a huge range of goods and services. With ‘Shop Local’, we want to create a new level of awareness among local residents about what local businesses have to offer, and encourage everyone to increase their local shopping.”

Nikki Inkster, owner of the Local Benefits discount shopping company which recently began serving the Oliver/Osoyoos region, says Shop Local will build goodwill and mutual appreciation between Osoyoos businesses and residents. “I am amazed at the wide range of products and services residents can get right here in their own backyard, that many people probably didn’t even know existed,” she says. “Shop Local gives businesses a way to advertise to the entire community without having to pay for it, and encourages Osoyoos people to spend their dollars in their own community.”

Trish Callarec, co-owner of Stedman’s V&S Department Store in downtown Osoyoos, says she is happy to participate in Shop Local, and thinks the program is one of a number of strategies that stores in small towns must use to compete for business. “It’s a wonderful advertising concept for us, in that it costs nothing except for the discounts,” she says. “Anything that helps people shop locally is a good thing. This definitely seems like a win/win situation.”

At least five Shop Local kiosks will be set up in Osoyoos between March 9 and April 30, where people can register their household for the program and pick up their free membership card. The first sign-up kiosk will be at the BC Visitor Centre @ Osoyoos on March 19.

The agreement between Destination Osoyoos and Local Benefits provides that Local Benefits will carry out operation and delivery of the Shop Local program. Destination Osoyoos is subsidizing the membership costs by providing one membership per household to a maximum of 1,500 cardholders until April 30, at no charge to the membership holder.

Shop Local members can find all participating Osoyoos businesses and their discounts listed under Shop Local on the Local Benefits website, www.localbenefits.ca. A wide range of businesses are taking part in Shop Local, including: restaurants, auto repair shops, confectionaries, ice cream shops, a golf course, the bowling alley, clothing stores, drug stores, furniture stores, and flower shops. Some of the discounts are for specific products or ‘buy-one-get-one-free’, but most are straight dollar or percentage discounts, such as 10 or 15 per cent.

As part of its operation of the Shop Local campaign, Local Benefits has invited every Osoyoos business to participate in the program. Additional businesses are welcome to sign on to the program after the March 9 launch, and a number are expected to join the approximately 100 businesses already involved.

Local Benefits will provide Destination Osoyoos with regular reports during the campaign and a final report next February on all aspects of Shop Local. In addition, surveys of participating residents and businesses will be conducted. Mandziuk says Destination Osoyoos and Local Benefits will evaluate the success of Shop Local early next year and may consider launching it again in 2010. “Through this program and other initiatives in the future, we will continue to develop ways for Osoyoos residents and businesses to support each other and their community,” Mandziuk says.

For additional details of the ‘Shop Local’ membership program and how to register, please refer to the Local
Benefits website at www.localbenefits.ca.

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FOR INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Glenn Mandziuk, Chief Executive Officer
Destination Osoyoos
Tel: 250-495-3366 Email: glenn@osoyoos.ca

The Destination Osoyoos Development Society is a non-profit grassroots organization committed to strengthening economic, physical, social and cultural conditions in the Osoyoos area. The goal of its Community Economic Development Strategy is to promote enhanced quality of life and a sustainable, diversified economy. It is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors representing diverse interests in the community.