I know it’s customary to exchange gifts during the holiday season, but the Advocate is saving your gift until February.
That’s when we’ll be unveiling the Advocate Value Card, which you’ll be receiving free-of-charge in our February issue.
For the past few months, we’ve been working with neighborhood business-people to develop a program that rewards our readers for shopping here in our neighborhood. And we think we’ve found a great solution with the Advocate Value Card.
So far, more than 50 neighborhood businesses have signed up to provide year-round discounts to Advocate Value Card holders throughout 1999. Included among the participants so far are automotive repair shops, restaurants, dentists, appliance sales and repair shops, car washes, hair and nail salons and florists.
And we’re working to sign up more than 100 participants by February 1, when the program begins.
What does this mean to you?
Each business participating has agreed to offer a significant discount, sometimes as much as 50 percent, to anyone presenting an Advocate Value Card.
The only way to receive the discount is to present the Advocate Value Card, and the only place to receive the Advocate Value Card is our February issue.
Each of our 60,000 February issues will include a plastic-coated card good for an entire year of discounts at participating neighborhood businesses.
Each month’s Advocate also will include an updated list of participants – which we hope will grow as the program proves successful – so that you’ll have a constant reminder of the neighborhood businesses who are working hard to earn your confidence.
Keeping neighborhood businesses profitable and successful is important in keeping our neighborhood home values increasing, our neighborhood schools improving and our neighborhood population stable.
And one thing I never forget is that neighborhood businesses have made it possible for us to deliver an Advocate to you without cost each month for the past nine years.
Over those years, you’ve consistently supported the advertisers on these pages, and that’s important: I can assure you these businesses base their advertising decisions with us almost entirely on how many new customers their Advocate advertising has brought in during prior months.
More often than not when investigating the advertisers on these pages, I think you’ve been pleasantly surprised that their prices often are the same or even less than the big guys, and the service usually can’t be beat.
So I hope this holiday season finds you and your family happy, healthy and spending money with lots of our neighborhood businesses and advertisers. And I hope you’ll encourage some of your favorite businesses to participate in our Advocate Value Card promotion – it’ll be good for them, for you and for us.
That’s a pretty happy holiday thought to me.
