There have been some real challenges for downtown Greensboro businesses lately – homelessness and a lack of adequate convenient parking to name two big ones – however, backers of downtown businesses are hoping a new initiative will be a shot in the arm.
Downtown Greensboro Inc. is rolling out a new program aimed at encouraging residents and visitors to spend more money at locally owned businesses downtown.
The organization announced this week that it has launched “Boro Bucks” – a digital community gift card that can be used at more than 50 participating businesses in downtown Greensboro.
The gift cards can be purchased online in amounts ranging from $5 to $500 and can be sent instantly by text or email or mailed as a physical card.
Unlike cartons of milk, the cards never expire.
The program is designed to make it easier for people to support local businesses while also giving downtown merchants another way to attract customers.
“We created Boro Bucks to make it easy for residents and visitors to shop local,” DGI Interim Executive Director Rob Overman stated in a press release announcing the new program. “Every dollar spent with Boro Bucks goes directly to the small businesses that make Downtown Greensboro special.”
According to DGI, the participating businesses include restaurants, retail stores, salons, fitness studios, live music venues and other downtown merchants.
The cards operate through the Mastercard payment network, meaning businesses don’t need any special equipment to accept them. DGI stated that merchants receive payment the same business day and that there’s no charge for businesses to take part in the program.
The Boro Bucks program is part of a growing trend around the country in which downtown organizations, chambers of commerce and local governments create “shop local” gift card systems intended to keep spending within a community rather than sending it to national chains or online retailers.
The Greensboro program is being powered by the Yiftee platform, a national company that specializes in local community gift card systems. According to Yiftee, more than 700 communities nationwide now use similar programs.
Other North Carolina cities have launched comparable programs. Downtown Raleigh operates a digital downtown gift card program that can be used at more than 90 businesses. Durham also previously launched a “Spendabull” community card program aimed at encouraging residents to spend money with local merchants instead of large national retailers.
Programs like these became especially popular during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, when downtown groups and local governments searched for ways to support struggling small businesses. Some communities have even used the cards for employee rewards programs, tourism campaigns and government assistance initiatives that require funds to be spent locally.
Supporters of the programs say the cards often generate more spending than the face value of the gift card itself because customers frequently spend additional money when redeeming them.
Downtown Greensboro Inc. is a nonprofit organization focused on downtown economic development, events, public space activation and business partnerships.
People interested in purchasing Boro Bucks or seeing participating businesses can visit the Boro Bucks website at https://downtown-greensboro.yiftee.com.
Uh, no. You wanna give some feel-good money? Cash works really well, the recipient can buy what they want, anywhere the want.
crypto rugpull ! fake program fake money. nothing real about it.. greensburl has gone broke
Lol… I’ll pass on Boro Bucks and downtown .
wut would bring u back ? elvis ? billy graham ? a superior buffet ? nekid wimn ? i told this guy: give u a dollar put on a shirt. pulled a gun & shot me dead. dang urban renewal is tuff
Ummm, I don’t think so. I’m not paying money to buy a card to spend the money. That’s a rip off. And who gets the money from the sale of these anyway. If I go into a business downtown and I give them my debit card or cash, that supports that local business. I do not have to buy a idiotic boro buck card just to support local. That is the most asinine idea that this town has ever come up with. What a freaking rip-off! If some of these idiots want to go and pay good money just to buy a gift card to use in place of that money, I hope they go bankrupt doing it. This is the dumbest idea in the history of dumb ideas.
it is always advantageous to GET a cash gift rather than ANY gift card that always limits choice. they make no sense to me ! just another scam that THE SCOTTISH pull to fleece the irish
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What a silly little project. Complete waste of time.
Want Downtown Greensboro to thrive again? Widen roads to traffic, replace stoplights with roundabouts so vehicles can proceed without delay when it’s clear, and DOUBLE PARKING SPACES AND MAKE THEM FREE.
Within a year Downtown be be vibrant, prosperous, and thriving.
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Why won’t they do this? Because the Left despises and resents the private automobile, and is waging an undeclared war on our cars.
In parts of the UK they have imposed 20mph speed limits, and cameras ticket you at 22mph. Really. They’ve even blocked off entire streets with barriers, and choked already narrow streets with unnecessary bus lanes and bike lanes, to prevent cars from using the whole road, and make your journey take twice as long.
The Left wants to take away our cars.
One of the ways to take away the freedom that an auto gives is to make them too expensive to own and operate. Like the average price of a new car is right at $50,000. Imagine to total cost of upkeep, insurance, fuel, taxes; and heaven forbid, an accident that totals your plastic chip-mobile at 15mph.
I’ve had two of those in the last three years. Two 15mph (or less) collisions destroyed two plastic-chip Corollas. Replacements are most difficult. We now look for $4,000 throw-aways.
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You’re right Miller.
The Left’s strategies are multiple, but in brief they want to make driving expensive, difficult, frustrating, time consuming, and generally impossible.
In London they’ve even erected huge barriers that block off streets, making it impossible for anything to pass except for their beloved bicycles. And the Leftist Muslim Mayor Khan is imposing absurdly low 20mph speed limits everywhere, with cameras that ticket you at 22mph. Really.
They hate our cars – because they’re our freedom.
i do to. behind those barriers throng people – not your loud, stinking, toxic, dangerous machinery & dog ugly, sterile parking lots. i used commas to help your comprehension