Chamber Holiday Shopping Spree begins at participating businesses

The Graham Chamber of Commerce Holiday Shopping Spree kicked off Friday, with a total of $7,000 in local prizes available for shoppers who make purchases at local participating businesses. The annual holiday chamber event encourages shopping locally.

Over 20 participating chamber member local businesses will be a part of the event held through Friday, Dec. 16. For every $25 spent at a participating business, the customer will receive a stamp card for the campaign.

“The point of the shopping spree is to promote shopping local in Graham before the holidays. So at the 25 locations, (...) for every $25 you spend, you get your name put into the drawing at the end of each week,” Chamber Manager Cayley Strickland said. “Each week, we’ll give out various amounts of Chamber Bucks based on those drawings. Which again, the Chamber Bucks is just promoting keeping money local to Graham. So those can be spent at participating locations through the chamber. So they have to be chamber members to take Chamber Bucks, obviously. The first day will be kind of a quick turnaround, but every week (thereafter) it will be the full week’s worth of spending. It really encourages people to shop local, but shopping local frequently during that time.”

Participants in the shopping spree must turn in cards to the chamber by 5 p.m. Thursday each week. Each Thursday, the week’s cards will be collected to be used in prize drawings the following day.

For the full story, see the Saturday, Nov. 26 edition of The Graham Leader.