- "Shop Tehachapi" is a digital gift card program that encourages shopping local, not just during the holiday season.
- It's just like a regular gift card that you can use at any of the participating businesses around town.
- Chamber of Commerce executive director Clare Scotti shares how the Chamber hopes to support businesses year-round with the new program.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The Tehachapi Chamber of Commerce has a new gift card that you can use at any participating local business, and, it is all online. This program encourages people to shop small.
"Free advertising, marketing, letting everybody know that these are the local businesses here in town that you can redeem these gift cards at," said Clare Scotti, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director.
"Shop Tehachapi" is the new program that allows one gift card to be used at multiple participating businesses.
Even those who are not part of the Tehachapi Chamber of Commerce are welcome to sign up for the program.
"You fill out a quick little form, and it immediately sends a Mastercard so they can dial in the number, so it activates their point-of-sale system. They get added to a map. So there's this beautiful digital map that points out all of the different locations of the Tehachapi businesses that are a part of it," Scotti said.
The Chamber partnered with Yiftee, a company that helps create community gift cards to support small businesses.
Yiftee's community card, which is completely customizable for each community they partner with, allows a unique option for gifts. Gift cards are not limited to one business anymore, especially for large corporate holiday gifts.
"Those organizations are spending billions of dollars on gift cards anyway, and now they have a way to take those same dollars and channel them to the local shops and restaurants in the community," said Yiftee CEO Donna Novitsky.
The goal of Shop Tehachapi is to give back to the participating businesses year-round.
"That money that was spent on that gift card goes 100% back into our community, and that just helps to grow our Tehachapi economy and keeps it strong all throughout the year," said Scotti.
For more information on the program, visit the Chamber of Commerce website.
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