CBA Ends Campaign With Holiday Celebration
A campaign that urged Black Friday shoppers in the Chatham community to buy locally culminated Dec. 20 with a festive holiday celebration. The campaign and event were sponsored by the Chatham Business Association Special Service Area #51.
For eight hours last Tuesday, hundreds of merchants, business owners, residents and others served by SSA #51 in the South Side community were treated to free hot chocolate, food, a visit with Santa entertainment and more. The event was held in the parking lot of the Chatham Village Square Mall at 87th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.
CBA, which runs the SSA #51 program, continued its push to encourage Chatham area residents to buy locally by offering gift certificates to people who spent at least $100 with area merchants during the day after Thanksgiving shopping rush. CBA/SSA#51 used print, radio and other media, including posters in the windows of participating merchants, to spread the word about the special campaign. As part of its overall work throughout the year, CBA encourages shopping in the community. But a special effort was done for the busiest day and official kick offof the Christmas shopping season.
Melinda Kelly of CBA told the Chicago Citizen that statistics show how impactful to the community it is for its residents to shop locally.
If you dont spend with the businesses in your community, you dont create jobs, or help local schools, she explained.
The holiday celebration was a party with an economic purpose, she explained. It brought business owners and residents together under one festive setting to connect in ways that would benefit them both.
Kelly said it would be the small businesses like the ones in Chatham that would help us keep our (national) economy strong. But it would be up to residents to patronize the local businesses so that more money could stay in the community, she added.
To help keep the cash registers ringing and customers coming through local merchants doors, the Black Friday marketing campaign also included a Your Vision for Chatham Cottage Grove SSA #51 Business Corridors Holiday Art Contest. Also, a special wish list contest granted families holiday wishes using merchandise and services from participating CBA businesses.
Kelly said that some of the art submitted as part of the art contest would be used in 2012 to market one of more of our vacant or underutilized commercial properties within the SSA #51 available for rent or purchase within our business corridors, Kelly said.
By Rhonda Gillespie
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