Dear Editor,
I would like to take this opportunity to express how pleased the Canowindra Business Chamber and Progress Association (CBCPA) committee is that the local community were able to come together for the Christmas shopping days. The four days last week turned out to be a fantastic few days of economic stimuli and demonstrated fantastic community spirit. We have always known we live in a great village and this has just reassured us even further.
The shopping days are a big part of the CBCPA calendar and we are pleased to announce that a total spend of up to $60,000 was generated over the latter part of last week. This is a three fold increase on what the Christmas shopping events have been able to do in the last few years. I can’t help but think this is a great success and I couldn’t be happier for the participating businesses. There were up to 40 individual businesses participating with some trialling new business hours.
Obviously we had our challenges with COVID etc. but we planned out how to best serve the participating businesses and this was achieved by promoting shopping local. Cabonne Council were instrumental in their generosity, donating $600 worth of prizes as well as their skills in promotion, design and printing. Orange 360 also ran radio ads in Orange and surrounding areas promoting the idea of Christmas shopping locally in all villages in the area. We definitely benefited from this as I personally spoke with people from as far as Young, Forbes and look forward to working closely with these two entities as well as other towns in our district.
We are pleased to highlight the efforts of the CBCPA sub-committee with Jenny Middleton and Michelle Porter wonderfully heading up the committee! They were always positive, worked hard and even called upon some businesses up to five times to encourage them to get involved. Local businesses also put their hands in their pockets to donate vouchers for prizes up to $1200 worth as well as host photographers and bands. A total of 29 vouchers were raffled and drawn to again stimulate local shopping.
We as a committee, are pleased with the result, but we really need to find out what businesses thought of the shopping days! There will be a different group walking the streets in the next week or so to hold a full review of the shopping days. We look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Antonio D’Onise
On behalf of the CBCPA committee