The first Annual Big Spend on July 25th generated an estimated 16 Million Dollars in spending.
Victoria BC’s Tim Schindel awoke on the morning of April 16th, literally with a dream, about “The Big Spend” It would be a one day, across Canada economic kickstart where people in every market in Canada spent locally on purpose. But in his wildest dreams, he couldn’t have dreamed about how successful the idea would become.
“It came at just the right time for some many cities. Most businesses are open again, but now is such a crucial time to inject money back into our local retailers. Watching people, groups and Chambers of Commerce from East to West rally around this idea was very moving for me personally. I’m an encourager. It was always supposed to help bring hope back to business owners. And it seems like it worked!” says Tim Schindel of Leading Influence.
As numbers continued to roll in organizers were thrilled, but with a grass-roots event such as this, they knew they would only see a fraction of the actual spending reported.
“We estimated conservatively that 10% (or less) participation would actually be recorded on thebigspend.com. Using that formula, we project that 150,000 shoppers spent 16.2 Million dollars across Canada. Economic research says that local small businesses recirculate around 4-5 times more back into local economies than multinationals. Doing math on that means an amazing day for Canadian cities,” added Schindel.
“We heard stories of businesses and organizations giving their employees money to invest in OTHER small businesses. There were downtowns celebrating with special #spendfriend photo booths. Some folks made a day out of it and shared on Facebook a complete day of local spending with their kids all over town. One Dad told us of how he used it as a reason to teach his kids about how local economies work. How cool is that?” said Deb McClelland, Past President of Chamber of Commerce Executives of Canada.
Fifty-six churches, including SouthPort Pentecostal in Saugeen Shores. “The response from the community for the church has been amazing,” says Pastor David Baker. “Several small businesses have reached out thanked us.”
In addition, 600 Small Businesses, 145 Business Organizations (Chambers of Commerce / BIAs etc.) and 58 Local Governments officially signed up for the inaugural event with many more, after seeing the success of The Big Spend, preparing to jump in for next year. “Next year’s event is expanding to a whole weekend – July 23-25, 2021,” says Schindle.
For more information, visit: https://thebigspend.com and
https://www.facebook.com/TheBigSpend
