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City Embraces Gift Cards – Iowa City turns to gift cards to boost downtown businesses

Keep Austin Weird. Many people don’t realize that the slogan that is now so closely associated with the quirky capital city of Texas was originally coined as a rallying cry for citizens to favor local businesses over national chains with their spending dollars.

Austin’s efforts to bolster local businesses has been successful enough that other cities, like Louisville, Kentucky, have swiped the exact same phrase and used it as a way for restaurants, bars and clothing stores to brand themselves. Now there’s another way for businesses to band together to encourage their friends and neighbors to patronize their shops: by starting a gift card program.

According to a story in The Daily Iowan, that’s exactly what businesses in the Downtown District of Iowa City did this past Aug. The idea was the brainchild of the Downtown District, which cited the success of other cities like Des Moines in offering a single gift card that can be utilized at numerous businesses in a small geographic area.

In her story, reporter Gabriela Dunn writes that the gift card program cost $7,000 to launch and that 85 of 280 downtown businesses have agreed to accept the cards. According to Betsy Potter, the Downtown District operations director, local businesses have been vocal in their desire for a gift card program to be started. “The initial reason for the program was that we heard from a lot of our businesses that a downtown gift card would be beneficial for them,” Potter told the newspaper, which chronicles events in the hometown of the University of Iowa. “We got almost weekly calls asking if there was a community gift card.”

So far, only four people have signed up to get a card, which cost $1.50 to activate. But Potter said that her organization has yet to do any marketing and was unconcerned about the meager initial response. Still, Patrick Barron, a University of Iowa economics lecturer, told the newspaper he was skeptical about the program’s prospects. “Frankly, looking at it from a customer perspective, I don’t see why I would buy a card if I don’t get a discount or incentive.”

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  • City Embraces Gift Cards – Iowa City turns to gift cards to boost downtown businesses

    City Embraces Gift Cards – Iowa City turns to gift cards to boost downtown businesses

    Keep Austin Weird. Many people don’t realize that the slogan that is now so closely associated with the quirky capital city of Texas was originally coined as a rallying cry for citizens to favor local businesses over national chains with their spending dollars.

    Austin’s efforts to bolster local businesses has been successful enough that other cities, like Louisville, Kentucky, have swiped the exact same phrase and used it as a way for restaurants, bars and clothing stores to brand themselves. Now there’s another way for businesses to band together to encourage their friends and neighbors to patronize their shops: by starting a gift card program.

    According to a story in The Daily Iowan, that’s exactly what businesses in the Downtown District of Iowa City did this past Aug. The idea was the brainchild of the Downtown District, which cited the success of other cities like Des Moines in offering a single gift card that can be utilized at numerous businesses in a small geographic area.

    In her story, reporter Gabriela Dunn writes that the gift card program cost $7,000 to launch and that 85 of 280 downtown businesses have agreed to accept the cards. According to Betsy Potter, the Downtown District operations director, local businesses have been vocal in their desire for a gift card program to be started. “The initial reason for the program was that we heard from a lot of our businesses that a downtown gift card would be beneficial for them,” Potter told the newspaper, which chronicles events in the hometown of the University of Iowa. “We got almost weekly calls asking if there was a community gift card.”

    So far, only four people have signed up to get a card, which cost $1.50 to activate. But Potter said that her organization has yet to do any marketing and was unconcerned about the meager initial response. Still, Patrick Barron, a University of Iowa economics lecturer, told the newspaper he was skeptical about the program’s prospects. “Frankly, looking at it from a customer perspective, I don’t see why I would buy a card if I don’t get a discount or incentive.”

  • Prepaid Debit Cards And Obamacare

    Prepaid Debit Cards And Obamacare

    Pretty much nothing has been uncontroversial about President Barack Obama’s health care reform law. From screams about so-called “death panels” to complaints that the new law, known officially as the Affordable Care Act, doesn’t cover enough people, reasoned debate and compromise has been basically non-existent since well before the bill was even introduced to Congress.

    And even though Republicans in the House of Representatives have voted dozens of times to repeal the law and efforts are still continuing to de-fund it, the Obama administration is feverishly working to get the health exchanges it creates up and running. As part of that effort, according to reports in Businessweek Magazine and The Wall Street Journal, the White House issued rules in late Aug. that declare that prepaid debit cards can be used by citizens to pay for their new health care plans.

    According to the Businessweek story by John Tozzi, the state exchanges that will begin opening in Oct. will be required to accept payment via not only prepaid debit cards but also checks, money orders and bank wire transfers. In a way, this shouldn’t be at all surprising. After all, the Affordable Care Act is aimed largely at helping low-income families to purchase health care. Even though these new entrants to the health care market will be aided with government subsidies to help afford their new plans, they will still need a way to pay for it. For an estimated 10 million U.S. households lacking a bank account, a regular check is not an option. And according to a Vanderbilt University study cited in the Businessweek article, nearly 30% of those eligible for health care subsidies do not have bank accounts.

    Enter prepaid debit cards, a product that the federal government is already quite familiar and comfortable with. Indeed, tax refunds and a host of different government benefits can already be deposited to a prepaid debit card account. Still, there is likely to be criticism of the use of prepaid debit cards in this instance, since so many of them come with high fees. Then again, would anybody really expect this aspect of Obamacare to be less controversial than all the rest?

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