Enthusiasm remains high for the Shop St Joseph Holiday Program, even though the number of tickets handed out this year was down slightly.
St Joseph Metro Chamber President and CEO Patt Lilly tells us there were over 400,000 tickets distributed to shoppers this year, but it’s difficult to gauge the exact economic impact of the program.
“We know it has some impact because people are going in,” Lilly said.
“They’re either getting a ticket or asking for a ticket, so certainly it has some impact in that respect. I guess the good news is that over the years we continue to see the sales tax (collections) go up in Buchanan County, so that’s always a good sign.”
Lilly and Chamber Chairman Vern Middleton drew the winning numbers (0137100) from a hopper at the Chamber offices Wednesday afternoon. The shopper with the winning ticket has 24 hours to come forward to claim the $10,000 prize.
Keep your tickets. If a winner doesn’t come forward by 4:30pm on Thursday, Dec. 19, another number will be announced.
The winner may call the St Joseph Metro Chamber at (816) 232-4461 during business hours or at (816)261-3610 after business hours to arrange a time to verify the ticket. The winner must come to the Chamber office at 3003 Frederick Ave. within the 24-hour time frame to claim the prize. Click here for specific rules.
The number of participating merchants was also down this year.
“I wish that we could get more retailers involved in the program. This year we only had about fifty involved,” Lilly said.
“It seems to me that every retailer would want to get involved in something like that. When you don’t have as many retailers you give out fewer tickets and there’s less synergy around it. But it’s an important message to share with the community, and that’s to shop locally.”
Lilly says the future looks fairly bright for the promotion.
“Obviously, like many of our programs, we have a committee that oversees this, a volunteer group. We’ll sit down with them and go through the numbers to see if it’s something that we should continue, and, if so, how can we make it better.”