South Bay Leader

Long Beach, CA - The City of Long Beach is launching the Shop Long Beach program, a Long Beach Recovery Act funded initiative focused on supporting local small businesses and rewarding customers for shopping in Long Beach. The Shop Long Beach program will provide the opportunity for customers to earn valuable rewards for supporting their favorite small businesses and incentives to discover new places by accumulating reward points that can be spent like cash at a wide range of establishments throughout the city. The Shop Long Beach program is open to most locally owned, independent merchants throughout Long Beach. This innovative rewards program is set to launch in July with a “Small Biz Blitz” contest and thousands of dollars in rewards prizes beginning this summer. To participate, small businesses and shoppers are encouraged to sign up early at shoplb.org.

"Long Beach is committed to fostering economic growth by supporting increased spending at our local businesses,” said Mayor Rex Richardson. “As we empower the community to support small businesses through creative, engaging and technology-based programs, we advance citywide economic recovery.”

The goal of the Shop Long Beach campaign is to generate $1 million in additional spending at local small businesses while making local purchases more attractive and convenient for customers. The Program will ramp up through a Long Beach Small Biz Blitz contest this summer, launching July 1, which aims to increase awareness of and participation in shopping at small businesses throughout the city of Long Beach.

The Shop Long Beach program will have a citywide phased rollout for businesses where participants can spend rewards dollars in various neighborhoods starting in July and through December 2023. Phases include:

Phase 1 - Focus Areas: Shop Long Beach is designed to support equitable economic recovery for small businesses hardest hit by the pandemic, with support for local businesses owned by people who identify as Black, Latinx, Cambodian, and Asian and Pacific Islander as well as businesses located in low- and moderate-income areas. The identified communities include:

• North Long Beach, July 28
• West Long Beach, Aug. 24
• Central Long Beach, Sept. 15

Phase 2 – Citywide: Shop Long Beach will support the economic vitality of businesses across Long Beach. After the Focus Areas are activated in the program, consumers will be able to spend their reward dollars at participating businesses anywhere in the city:

• Citywide, Oct. 15   

To participate in Shop Long Beach, small business owners and residents are encouraged to learn more and sign up early at shoplb.org. By joining the program, businesses will gain free promotion through the Localight app and campaign materials and will receive technical support to enroll and maximize program benefits, while customers will have the chance to contribute to their community's economic wellbeing and enjoy rewards for shifting their spending to local businesses.

The City previously sought partners to administer the Shop Long Beach program to support equitable economic recovery for Long Beach small business and nonprofits. The City selected vendors including Long Beach Center for Economic Inclusion (LBCEI) in partnership with Localight, a Long Beach-based startup with a mission to accelerate inclusive growth across local marketplaces.

This program is made possible by the Long Beach Recovery Act, a plan to fund economic and public health initiatives for Long Beach residents, workers and businesses critically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than $20 million has been allocated to support direct business support, which includes prioritizing small businesses and nonprofits heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional information about the Long Beach Recovery Act is available at longbeach.gov/recovery.

Original source can be found here.