Innovation can come from anywhere, even tiny Pittsboro, NC (just outside Raleigh, NC). This story talks about how the local community has come up with a creative way to encourage the local residents to shop locally.
If you work out the math behind it, it's essentially just store owners giving a 10% discount to the customers. The trick is in the packaging. If they just printed coupons, residents may just throw them away. But by giving them 10% extra ($100 USD buys 110 "Plenty" dollars), they are incentivized to spent the dollars they have exchanged. The emotional connection and the transactional connection is made. 90% of something is far better than 0% of nothing.
Who knows how long this currency will stay in existence, but it's a nice example of a community pulling together to create something greater for the overall community. I think I'll take the family down to the Pittsboro Soda Shop this weekend and spend a few Plenty dollars.
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