Chamber of Commerce to offer debit gift cards

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on October 27, 2006

Residents who believe in patronizing local businesses can impart that value to friends and relatives with their gifts this holiday season.

The Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce plans to sell plastic debit cards that can be used only at certain businesses. The Chamber hopes to have the 'A cards,' a form of local currency, ready by Thanksgiving, said executive director John Coull.

'While we might be inclined to give local gifts, we default to a mall gift for someone we want to be generous to, but are not close enough to to know their specific wants and needs,' he said. 'If there's a local gift certificate, we hope there'll be a lot of interest in that.'

Here's how it will work. Gift-givers will contact the Chamber in person, by phone, or online and buy the cards for any amount of money. There will be a $1.95 processing fee per transaction. The person receiving the card can use it, with no time limit, at about 25 Amherst businesses.

In addition to gifts, the Chamber hopes that the cards will appeal to parents who want to give their college-age children some spending money, Coull said.

'You can't send the money away to Freeport, Maine, or take it to a big-box store,' he said. 'We believe we can help promote local merchants and build business by doing it.'

The goal is to sell between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of cards a year, Coull said.

That's a reasonable expectation, said Suzanne Beck, executive director of the Northampton Chamber of Commerce, which has sold paper gift certificates for downtown use since 1992. About 60 businesses now participate, and sales increased by 15 percent this year after the Chamber went from paper to plastic, she said.

'When people are given a choice, they will choose their own community,' Beck said.

The Amherst Chamber plans to give out $5,000 in free samples to 'prime the pump,' Coull said. These 1,000 cards, worth $5 apiece, will be given away on the campuses, at municipal offices and the senior center and to downtown merchants, he said.

Chamber representatives are visiting Amherst businesses to determine which of them have credit card machines that will take the new cards. If they can't, the businesses can get an additional card reader, Coull said.