Staff writer
Peabody Main Street Association is once again sponsoring the annual Peabody Shopping Spree to encourage residents and visitors to do Christmas shopping in Peabody.
“The tickets to take part in the shopping promotion will be available from participating merchants next week,” Peabody Main Street coordinator Shane Marler said. “Our goal was to be ready by Saturday for the “Small Business Saturday” promotion, but we ran into a snag or two and aren’t going to have things ready.”
The promotion will end and the winners drawn on the Monday before Christmas, Dec. 22. Participating merchants will have plenty of tickets on hand to pass out to shoppers. There is no charge for the tickets. For each $10 spent with a participating merchant, the merchant will punch or mark a $10 symbol on the ticket. When the ticket shows that five merchants have punched or marked the symbols on the ticket, the ticket holder signs his name on the back and turns it in for the drawing, which will take place in the afternoon Dec. 22.
Prizes in for the drawing in 2012 and 2013 totaled $1200. A “loser’s bracket” was drawn after Christmas from the partially completed tickets that were not entered in the main drawing.
“The whole idea is to track the impact of shopping at home for the holidays,” Marler said. “Counting the partially completed tickets gives us a more complete idea of how much shoppers spend.”
Watch for an announcement in next week’s Peabody Gazette-Bulletin for more complete information on the promotion and the participating businesses.