Booster Bucks move big money around town
BY KIM LANGEN
When a local insurance broker took a gander at some recent ‘buck’ figures, she was pretty surprised at what she found.
Roberta Johnson, who also does some accounting at Lewis and Jones Group Ltd. on Broadway Avenue, said that the Killarney Booster Bucks program involved a lot more dollars than she expected.
“When I added it up, it turns out that $142,675.00 in Killarney’s Booster Bucks have been bought since their inception in 2011,” she said. “I thought it was significant that this much money had been used in town.”
Lewis and Jones took over handling the local ‘dollars’ five years ago, which until then had been part of the Chamber of Commerce portfolio.
“We took it on because we’re open six days a week, and it was something we could do to help the community,” she said.
Christmas is traditionally their busiest time for booster buck sales, she added.
“A lot of places in town use them as a staff bonus incentive, and sometimes sports clubs use them in raffles, or as door prizes,” said Johnson. “But we sell them all through the year, and they can be redeemed here at any time.”
For the past three years Lewis and Jones have handled from $25K to over $30K in buck sales, which were created to encourage people to shop at home, instead of leaving town to spend their valuable money.
“It’s kind of an amazing number to be re-circulated,” she said. “It’s a good shop-at-home story.”
BUCKING THE TREND – Roberta Johnson, an insurance broker at Lewis and Jones Group Ltd., is pictured with just some of the new – and old – Killarney Bucks that get circulated around town each year with the company’s help. In 2016 alone over $30,000 was purchased and redeemed at local merchants using the Booster Bucks.