You can now download the new Capitol Hill dollar bills at The Capitol Hill Community Council Web site.
The council will formally unveil the new program tonight at 8p at Perfect Copy & Print on Broadway. While we’re disappointed these CHS suggestions didn’t make the final cut, we’re happy to help celebrate the new Hill “shop local” initiative.
We’re also helping to distribute the bills — here’s a special CHS edition for you to deploy.
The idea of the bills is simple — anybody can print and distribute them and any business can accept them for whatever value they think is fair. The council is suggesting the coupons be good for $1 or 10% off depending on the merchant’s discretion but be ready for a case-by-case situation when you use. The goal is to encourage people to shop in the neighborhood. And to have a little fun.
Here’s a list of pioneer Cap Hill merchants taking the bills, according to the CHCC:
Aprie Clothing – 310 Broadway
Babeland – adult toys – 707 E. Pike St.
Bliss Soap – 619 Broadway E.
Blooms – 433 Broadway E.
Galarias Restaurant – 611 Broadway E.
Broadway Grocery – 327 Broadway E.
GRUV Video – 422 Broadway E.
Harem – Mediterranean Clothes and styles – 617 Broadway E.
India Imports – 124 Broadway E.
Jai Tai Restaurant – 235 Broadway E.
Massai – African Imports – 215 Broadway E.
Seattle Museum of the Mysteries – 623 Broadway E. – full dollar amount
Table 219 Restaurant – 219 Broadway E
Teriyaki & Wok – 324 Broadway E.
Vajra – Incense, gifts and jewelry – 518 Broadway E.
If your favorite shop isn’t on the list, you might want to tell them about the bills and encourage them to put up a sign and take part in the program. Some stores might collect the bills and pass them back out to customers while others will probably be good with seeing your printout. If you’re super artsy, you could also try drawing your own on the spot.
nifty that it exists I guess, but they’re not really a local currency if the mint is always open.
Yeah, it’s heavy on the symbol end of things. Step by step. Given Council’s current finances and membership, this seems like the most manageable way to start.
This is a great idea, but seems to duplicate a local shopping system already in place: the Puget Sound Community Change Card. Capitol Hill is under represented in terms of shops accepting the card. And while Interra (the organization that sponsors the card has a screen for local businesses, there is nothing to say that the card could not be used as the recognized “token,” meaning that even if a shop is not part of the program, they could recognize card holders with a discount.
This would also mean that people don’t need to print out paper coupons and remember to have them along with them when they go shopping. It would have the added benefit of bringing people in to the PSCC card program. http://www.pugetsound.cc/
Even if you didn’t use a card like this, it would seem that having a “coupon” is kind of pointless, especially if anyone can print it out, and then keep copying it. It would make more sense to require people to get these from different community organization websites each month, for example, so that they see that organization, maybe donate, or signup for a mailing list. At the very least one would expect that in exchange for getting the discount coupon, a shopper might need to sign up for some kind of email list so that they can be contacted about other community events and programs.
Otherwise, why require the coupon at all, a shopper could just say “Can I have the Capitol Hill discount?” (and either way, coupon or not, what would stop someone not living on the hill from using the discount? and would it matter at all if the real goal is to drive more business to merchants on capitol hill?
If you want my business, get rid of the ‘restroom for customers only’ signs. I can’t shop in places with signs like this: to do so would subsid9ze the harassment of my neighbors. It won’t be a matter of ‘incovenience’ when cholera, dysentery and related epidemics break out due to people being denied restrooms.
Remove the signs–and then maybe we can talk about the blindingly bright lights.
I, and I’m sure others, have little gumpshun left in their wretched bodies. Perhaps if stores would just print them out and stack them next to the register, folks will grab a few extra and shop at a tad more places for a tad more stuff.
You have to have to coupon/chd in order to create a community spirit and loyalty– shop locally, live locally.
If you just offer the discount, you’d just be lowering the price of all goods by 10%. By requiring the killed trees, you help promote the cause of localization through awareness. Kind of like a marathon in lieu of just donating the money quietly.
It appears that Interra / Puget Sound Community Change Card is going out of business here locally. I am trying to find out why.
I wish it had worked!
-John