If at first you succeed, then try, try again…

 It worked a treat once, Orange City Council claimed, so why not give the Orange Shopping Card promotion, another spin round the rodeo?

 Council recently approved giving-away 1000 ‘Think Orange Region’, $50 EFTPOS shopping cards to help boost businesses affected by the pandemic.

 The $50,000 funding boost, they say, builds on the successful ‘Retail Recovery’ program launched in 2020 where thousands of ‘Shop Orange’ cards were distributed locally.

 This program was designed as an emergency response to the unprecedented retail lockdown with a total of 200 winners with more than 100 locally-owned businesses signing-up for the promotion designed to pump-prime the local retail sector hit-hard by the continuing coronavirus crisis.

 The campaign has been rebranded as the ‘Think Orange Region Shopping Card’ working like any other gift card or voucher-based system that can be spent at more than 100 participating businesses in the Orange region.

 Orange Mayor Reg Kidd said this latest initiative comes on the heels of a string of measures aimed at supporting local retailers stay in business.

 “Many local businesses are doing it tough at present and while some aspects of that are unavoidable, I’m pleased Council is doing what it can to help support businesses now,” Cr Reg Kidd said.

 “Some of these strategies, like the FutureCity CBD upgrade are about the long term, but that doesn’t mean we can’t also work on some short-term solutions that will be felt in the coming months,” Cr Kidd said. 

Orange City Council’s Employment and Economic Development Committee chair, Cr Tony Mileto said the shopping card campaign had proved successful in the past.

 “We found last time that when someone uses one of these cards at a local store, they added some dollars of their own to buy something worth more than fifty dollars,” Cr Mileto said.

 “$50,000 is only a fraction of the revenue that’s spent at local stores in a year, but it all helps. It might be the factor that will prompt someone to shop online or make their first visit to a local store after the lockdown.”

 Businesses that have an EFTPOS facility can register their business on the ThinkOrange website and be able to accept Think Orange Shopping Cards. Council staff will then be in touch to finalise EFTPOS arrangements.

 For more information, go to: thinkorangeregion.com.au/think-orange-region/shop-local/