Spark Local Blog | by Giverrang

Company aims to boost local spending and draw attention to small businesses  Bristol, Connecticut FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: A Bristol-based startup company has just launched 169 different gift card programs for each town or city in Connecticut. Each program offers unique targeted support to local businesses by offering gift cards that can only be spent at independent businesses in that particular town or city ( list of CT card programs ).  The company behind the programs is Giverrang, which builds Community Gift Card programs for towns and cities to drive local spending to small businesses and keep more dollars local.  Each Connecticut town or city gift card can be spent at any independent business in that town or city. Cards intentionally can not be spent at chain stores like Mcdonald's or Walmart. Interested buyers can visit each card program’s web page to purchase a card (like the Hartford Local Gift Card ), and to see a selection of suggested merchants approved to accep...

  Every economic developer wants their community to be vibrant and their small businesses to thrive. But why is it easier in some locations than others? The main reason is culture. That elusive little word is often the difference between the local business environment succeeding and failing.  In places that are born and bred off the back of local products like Portland, ME, a shop local culture is ubiquitous in the fabric of every food or retail shop you walk into. But that foundation was laid from somewhere - decades of emphasis on local sourcing and production. Generations now inherently understand its importance to the way of living in the area. If your community does not have as fortunate a starting point, the best way to create a public understanding of why it is good to shop local, and to set a perpetual flywheel of support in motion for it, is to kindly assault the public with programs that adjust the psychological tenor in favor of a shop local culture.  It's in t...