Get ready to GO! Program underway to promote local businesses

Grand Island’s second annual GO! Passport Program is in full swing.

The program is sponsored by Look Local Grow Local, a collaboration of Grow Grand Island and the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce.

Nikki Palmer, the chamber’s special projects coordinator who is organizing the program, said it started Thursday and runs until Sept. 30. Businesses listed on the passport are:

-- Axe Holes, 2300 N. Webb Road

-- Bella Design & Décor, 110 E. Third St.

-- Central Nebraska Humane Society, 1312 Sky Park Road

-- Dee’s Hallmark, Conestoga Mall

-- Imagination City Children’s Museum, Conestoga Mall

-- Sticky Rice, 305 W. Koenig

-- Story Coffeehouse, 4100 W. 13th St.

-- Underground Café. 309 W. Third St.

-- West Anna Boutique, 116 E. Third St.

-- Western Edge, 111 N. Diers Ave.

The idea behind the passport program, which is modeled after the successful Nebraska Passport Program, is to not only get people to participating businesses, but also encourage them to spend money while they are there.

“When you spend $100 at a locally owned business, $68 stays in that community,” Palmer said. “That money helps schools, pays workers, improves the local economy and keeps Grand Island a great place to live.”

According to Chamber President Cindy Johnson, the pandemic had an effect on Grand Island’s business community. She said local businesses have struggled.

“It was only because of the community’s emphasis on the importance of buying local that some companies remained operational,” Johnson said. “It would be disappointing if consumers forgot about the importance of shopping locally.

“We hope the events of the last year will be a catalyst for change in purchasing behavior — moving people toward local businesses and away from online buying.”

She said, as one business leader told her this past week, “When we support small businesses, they will be more apt to help others. That’s something quite unique to locally owned and operated businesses.”

Don Barr is the owner of Western Edge, one of the participating businesses in the Passport Program. His store, which specializes in western clothing and accessories, has been a part of the Grand Island business community since 2009.

“We want people to open their eyes and try shopping locally,” Barr said.

While the local program is modeled after the Nebraska Passport Program, it’s on a smaller scale.

“The Nebraska Passport Program aims to drive tourism across Nebraska, but we strive to have people in our community visit and shop at local businesses to help the economy that way,” Palmer said. “We hadn’t planned to start the program during the pandemic, but it started out that way. But, we were happy to do it because a lot of people were really talking about the importance of shopping local and that was kind of the drum we wanted to beat as well.”

She said they gave out 800 passport booklets in 2020.

“We didn’t receive as many back as we hoped, but the reason for that is that people were not going into stores and things like that,” Palmer said. “We were happy, though, that we handed out 800 passports as it gave the participating businesses more awareness. That is where we really struck gold last year, in the awareness aspect.”

She said people can go to any of the 10 participants this year and pick up a passport. When people have visited all 10 businesses and have their passports stamped, they can return them to the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce and “collect a goody bag full of prizes.”

They will also be entered in a drawing to receive a $50 gift certificate to 40 North Tap and Grille, a hammock chair from Coldwell Banker Action Holdings and a gift basket from Raising Canes.

Palmer said participants can also download the Grand Island VIBE app on their smartphone to collect digital stamps.

While the pandemic affected the 2020 program, she said they learned some lessons that will go to improve this year’s program.

“We got everybody together this year for some training,” Palmer said. “We wanted to make it more of an experience with each visit.”

She said many of last year’s participants felt the awareness the program brought to their businesses was one positive aspect.

The Look Local Grow Local campaign was designed to educate the community on the importance of shopping locally.

“When you spend your money in Grand Island, that money stays here and that really does help our entire community,” Palmer said.

This year, she said, they set a goal of having 50 or more people complete their passport booklets before the end of September. That would mean more than 500 visits to participating businesses.

“We also plan to give out more booklets and hopefully have more people go to some of the stops, especially using the app, which we can track better,” Palmer said.

She also said participating businesses will be offering incentives to people using the passport.

“We have asked our participants to provide something to passport participants that is special to them, such as 10% discount when you have the passport stamped or another discount once you have collected all of our passports,” Palmer said.

She said Grand Island’s retail community has a lot to offer.

“You might not want to visit every single business on the passport, but if you are able to learn about something or visit somewhere that you typically wouldn’t, maybe you will find that it is something you enjoy or you know someone else who may enjoy it,” Palmer said.

For more information, visit the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce at 309 W. Second St., call 308-382-9210 or visit www.gichamber.com.