For nearly two decades, Downtown Oak Park has offered the Shopper’s Reward Program to encourage people to shop local, driving sales to area businesses during Christmas and through the start of the new year.
Shoppers who spent $500 from Nov. 1 through Christmas – and paid at least $25 at seven or more of 86 participating downtown businesses – can redeem their receipts for local coupons.
Through March 15, when shoppers turn in their receipts to the Downtown Oak Park office at 1010 Lake Street, they receive a booklet of five, $10-coupons. Each shopper can collect up to three booklets to redeem at 52 of those 86 businesses through March 15 (larger retailers like Target and Trader Joe’s don’t accept the rebates).
“You’re really encouraging [people] to come do their Christmas shopping in their small, local shops,” said Shannon Williams, Downtown Oak Park’s executive director. “And then, on the back end, you’re rewarded” during the beginning of the year, when businesses often experience a lull in customers. “It’s a win-win all the way around.”
The Book Table bookstore at 1045 Lake Street has participated in the Shopper’s Reward Program since it started, which Williams estimates is over 18 years ago.
Dec. 23, 2023 was The Book Table’s busiest day in its 20-year history. Though the Christmas season is often busy for the book store, Jason Smith – who owns The Book Table with his wife, Rachel Weaver – said the reward program is about much more than just improving sales for a singular business.
“We would have a holiday season even if the Shopper’s Reward Program didn’t exist, but the program isn’t about one business,” Smith said. “It’s about getting people to enter a minimum of seven businesses and, hopefully, become regular customers. It’s about showing people all the variety that Downtown Oak Park has to offer.”
And the program certainly helps The Book Table in the slower months at the beginning of the year.
“You take your busiest quarter of the year, and the sales from there then transfer into the first quarter, when it’s slower,” Weaver said. “I think those reward certificates definitely help get people back out.” So far in January, she’s seen a few customers every day turn in their coupons.
The Gold Hatpin, an antique and vintage jewelry store at 125 North Marion Street, has also participated in the Shopper’s Reward Program since its inception.
Though December is always The Gold Hatpin’s busiest month for sales, “I suspect that the Shopper’s Reward, most of the time, is not the motivating factor for people to shop our store,” said Diane Richardson, owner of The Gold Hatpin. “Although, I did have one customer mention she came in specifically to complete her list to qualify for the reward.”
Like with most businesses, Richardson’s customers often dwindle at the start of the year.
“It’s a typical retail cycle. There’s a big push for the December holidays. Then, once that flurry is over, January comes around,” Richardson said. But the Shopper’s Reward Program helps drive customers to Richardson’s shop. “We regularly have customers come in in January and February to spend their rewards,” she said.
The Shopper’s Reward Program is specific to Downtown Oak Park – one of 11 districts in Oak Park and, as the village’s central business district, the only one with a staff, employed by The Downtown Oak Park Business Alliance.
Commercial property owners within a four-square-block area – bordered by Ontario Street, Forest Avenue, North Boulevard and Harlem Avenue – can pay an annual $50 membership fee to the Downtown Oak Park Business Alliance in exchange for a variety of services and resources, one of which is participation in the Shopper’s Reward Program.
Williams estimated that around a third of the Downtown Oak Park Business Alliance’s budget goes toward marketing efforts, like rebates for the Shopper’s Reward Program. Williams said that the organization usually allocates around $80,000 for coupon booklets, but that number has been down since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“On average since COVID, we’re probably only giving around $60,000 worth of booklets, which I think is 1,200 books, versus normally around 1,800 books,” Williams said.
Those who exchange their receipts for a coupon booklet have until March 15 to spend their rebates.
“We start to see more [coupons] as people get a chance to go and turn them in,” Weaver said. “And at the end, there’s usually a mad rush to use them up before they expire.”