It’s tough in any town to get people to spend money in the local economy - especially when it’s up against bigger shops in cities and giant eCommerce players like Amazon. It’s especially tough if you're in one of the more remote towns close to the border where things might be cheaper.
But that’s the challenge that faced Letterkenny in Co Donegal and it rose to that challenge by introducing its own local voucher scheme - with a payment card that can only be spent in local shops. It’s been working for 19 years and now has 240 retailers involved
It’s called ShopLK and Claire McDonough is the Vice President of Letterkenny Chamber of commerce which administers the project. Claire spoke to Joe on the show this morning.