Lessons Learned: Using Yuba Bucks in an effort to communicate. Coordinate. Try something new. Support each other.
(Part Three of a three-part feature)
During the early COVID-19 pandemic, when lock-downs shuttered brick-and-mortar retailers, the already growing e-commerce sector surged. In 2020, the pandemic’s first year, online sales across the United States grew 43 percent, rising from $571.2 billion in 2019 to $815.4 billion in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Nevada County businesses already were struggling against both online ease and big-box shopping down the hill. Those that survived the pandemic have reopened to a complex new reality, facing entrenched consumer habits and, now, an uncertain global economic outlook.
Yuba Bucks is one effort undertaken by the Nevada City Chamber of Commerce to help bring people back to town.
Yuba Bucks is a MasterCard-brand virtual credit card placed on a cell phone. You buy it online and give it like a gift card, explains chamber Executive Director Stuart Baker. (It was proposed by then-board member Jesse Locks.) The hitch: Recipients can spend it only with the town’s 40 participating merchants.
“The format is good for Millennials and Gen Z,” Baker says, and it appeals to people’s feel-good impulse to support local businesses. The bigger problem, the chamber is finding, is getting people to act on that impulse, setting down their click-buy addiction long enough to peruse in person.
Amid Pandemic 1.0, the chamber and city started offering broader support, and that’s continuing. “What’s happened in the community is a lot more communication and coordination among the merchants,” Stuart says, with 25 to 30 business owners gathering monthly to share knowledge and ideas. The new city manager and police chief attend those meetings. Officials and merchants also are working toward a permanent, outdoor presence on Commercial Street – a boost for hard-hit restaurants.
“All of that has been a big positive,” Stuart added. “The merchants feel like, ‘People have my back.’”
Nevada City Chamber of Commerce
132 Main Street
Nevada City, CA 95959
530-265-2692
www.nevadacitychamber.com
