By Matt Hampton
According to Chamber President Mary Seifert, the organization has spent six months developing the program, which will officially launch in September. The cards can be purchased once a year for $25, and can be used for discounts and bonus services at stores with memberships in the Chamber. With any luck, Seifert said, the combination of quality local retailers and a united front in offering discounts will prove to be an irresistible combination for local shoppers.
Seifert said that the Franklin Square chamber is the first on Long Island to try such a tactic. The group’s June 25 meeting was the “soft launch” at which business owners learned about the cards, which they will be preparing to introduce to customers over the next two months.
“This is all a response to the state of the economy,” Seifert said. “We’re just looking for ways to keep people coming around. Here’s an opportunity for ... merchants to drive traffic; it’s a win-win.”
Lennie Carter, vice president of Ordereze.com, the company in charge of creating the accompanying Web site, said everything was designed to entice Franklin Square shoppers to stop in at their local retailers more frequently. “It started out as dining clubs, getting people to come into restaurants, and we look at this as kind of a natural way to broaden that out to all the businesses in the community,” Carter said, adding that the Web site would be a one-stop Internet information source where shoppers can see what kind of discounts are being offered, what’s on sale where, and how to capitalize on offers that might involve a combination of several retailers working together.
Shaun Malone, Ordereze.com’s vice president and general counsel, said the cards would be something new for shoppers and explained that they would be as easy to use as a shopper card from a supermarket chain. “People pay once a year, and there’s value in the cards,” Malone said. “It’s really to try and give everyone a sense of community.”
Aside from the launch of the cards, last Thursday night’s meeting was also an opportunity for local leaders to talk directly to business owners about what is happening in county government. County legislators John Ciotti and Vincent Muscarella attended, and both talked about the faltering economy. The major problem, both men said, is the threat that taxes pose.
“We are being truly taxed out of our homes,” said Ciotti, who represents the 6th District. “We’re going to overregulate a lot of the business owners to the point where they’re just going to throw their hands up.”
Muscarella, who holds the 8th District seat — and was working the same room as his opponent in this fall’s upcoming election, Chamber member Gasapare Tuminello — said he felt that the attitude of the community had as much to do with economic recovery. “If people believe there’s a recession, if that’s something we keep saying to people, then things are going to get bad,” Muscarella said. “I truly believe that some optimism will have a remarkable effect.”
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