Nine businesses throughout Detroit's
Villages neighborhoods are making a play for holiday shoppers with the introduction of a shopping passport. Completion of the passport enters shoppers into a January lottery where winners will be chosen at random and receive gift certificates to participating businesses.
Most of the nine businesses taking part in the Villages Passport are relatively new and located in West Village, reflecting the boom in small business development in that neighborhood. The businesses are offering a number of specials throughout the shopping season, including food and drink specials at Craft Work and free gift-wrapping at Sparkle in the Village. Shoppers get their passports stamped as they visit each store throughout the month of December.
Businesses participating in the Villages Passport:
The Villages Passport came as a result of September's Detroit Design Festival. According to Brian Hurttienne, executive director of
the Villages CDC, a number of the shops participating in DDF experienced such great business during the event that they expressed a desire for organizing something for the holidays.
"There are more and more businesses wanting to do things together. There's a comradery happening," says Hurttienne. "It really shows that this is a true neighborhood."
On Saturday, December 13, the Villages will host Shop Detroit, a holiday shopping booster program started by the Detroit branch of the NAACP in 1988. Hurttienne is currently recruiting several pop-up businesses to complement the event.
The Villages Passports can be picked up and, once completed, returned at any of the nine participating businesses throughout the month of December.
Source: Brian Hurttienne, executive director of the Villages CDC
Writer: MJ Galbraith
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