‘Shopportunity’ campaign gets folks to shop local and win prizes in Chilliwack

A campaign to get shoppers to support local Chilliwack businesses kicked off on Saturday, Dec. 4.

Chilliwack Economic Recovery Network (CERN) announced the Shop Local CHWK ‘Shopportunity’ initiative on Nov. 30.

Shopportunity is a shop local customer engagement campaign that gets residents to support more than 100 Chilliwack businesses and services during the economic recovery process.

Folks are eligible to win prizes throughout the campaign in three ways.

With each transaction made at any of the 100-plus participating businesses, shoppers can scan a unique QR code to be entered to win one of the weekly prizes. Each week there will be more than $1,000 worth of prizes to be won – such as local gift cards and gift baskets – and this part of the campaign runs for eight weeks from Dec. 4 to Jan. 31.

Additionally, folks can drop a letter into one of five festively-wrapped mailboxes placed around town in key shopping areas. The letters go to ‘Chilliwack elves’ Holly and Dolly and people are encouraged to write letters containing wishes (either for someone else or for themselves).

“It has to be local. We want kids or adults, or whoever is writing a letter to the elves, we want for it to be something local,” said Leanna Kemp, executive director with the Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce.

Names will be drawn from each mailbox every Friday and they are hoping to fulfill the wish written on the letter. People must include their name a contact number or email in the letter. The five festive mailbox locations are: District 1881 (Woolly Dog Alley), Garrison Village (Waves Coffee House), Eagle Landing (near the Cineplex), Cottonwood Centre (near the Santa display), and in Yarrow (The Farm Store in Yarrow). This runs from Dec. 4 to the end of December.

People are also automatically entered to win a $1,000 prize by following the Instagram account @shoplocalchwk by midnight on Sunday, Dec. 5. A name will be drawn on Monday, Dec. 6.

The campaign was made possible thanks to a $96,000 grant from the BC Chamber of Commerce. That money went towards the five festive mailboxes (purchased and wrapped locally), prizes for shoppers and promotional videos for each of the 100-plus participating businesses.

“Every participating business gets a 50-second video with a videographer. We want to introduce local business owners to the community,” Kemp said. “We want people to understand who these people are that are here doing business in our community that are employing our local residents.”

To see a list of the 100-plus participating local businesses, go to shoplocalchwk.com. Businesses can also sign up to register for the campaign at that website.

“Shop local,” Kemp said. “Support our local businesses. They support us.”

People can also follow and use the hashtags #shoplocalchwk #shopportunity and #chilliwacktogether throughout the campaign.

CERN was created amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to assist Chilliwack businesses during all stages of pandemic shut-down and re-open phases.CERN consists of the City of Chilliwack, Chilliwack Economic Partners Corporation (CEPCO), Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Chilliwack Business Improvement Association, Tourism Chilliwack, Stó:lō Community Futures, and Community Futures South Fraser.