Gift Card Surge Helps Restaurant Cash Flow
April 26, 2020 at 11:09 p.m.
Gift Card Surge Helps Restaurant Cash Flow
By Amanda [email protected]
When Gov. Eric Holcomb ordered all bars and restaurants to close their dining rooms to help slow the spread of coronavirus in late March, Keith Sampson and Matt Hoskins decided they wanted to do something to help.
“Matt Hoskins, the owner of Payprotec, and I had a conversation and we said we gotta do something to help these area restaurants. They’re not gonna make it,” Sampson said.
That’s when Hoskins came up with the idea of www.giftcardsurge.com.
“Payprotec put in a bunch of a money at first, and then Matt reached out to people he knew, and then we reached out to area restaurants,” Sampson said. “And we took that money and bought gift cards from them. It gives them immediate cash, without having to produce a product.”
Sampson said he went around to area restaurants, making conversations and promoting the restaurants on Facebook Live and their website.
The website allows people to donate money to purchase gift cards which are resold on the site at discounted rates. Sampson ships the gift cards to people who purchase them from his house.
“The response from the community has been absolutely phenomenal,” he said.
They’ve spent close to $30,000 buying gift cards.
The idea is to put cash into the hands of restaurant owners through the gift cards, and also to give the restaurants attention.
“At the end of the day, I tend to look at marketing and sales as two very different things,” Sampson said. “You have to change the word marketing to attention, and when a business has attention, then you can turn it into sales.”
The restaurants involved in Gift Card Surge right now include Cerulean; Creighton’s Crazy Egg Cafe & Coffee Bar; Downtown Eatery & Spirits; El Arriero; Mad Anthony’s Lake City Tap House; Mi Lindo Acapulco; Noa Noa; Oak & Alley; One Ten Craft Meatery; Rua; Taqueria el Comal; and Three Crowns Coffee.
Sampson said the restaurateurs love the idea, and that gift card surge is going to expand.
“We’re actually opening the doors up to more people,” Sampson said. “We looked at the restaurants that don’t have the financial backing, and so that was the idea of why we did it that way, but moving this thing into perpetuity, I can now open it up to whoever. I would like to keep it within Kosciusko County, but it can be a restaurant, retail, a chain (restaurant) or whatever.”
Originally, Sampson and Hoskins thought they’d just get some donations and buy the gift cards then give the gift cards away and recycle the donated money into buying another surge of gift cards and be done.
“But it is so much more than that now,” Sampson said.
Any business owner or manager who would like to discuss being a part of the website can contact Sampson at [email protected] for more information.
“I’m a big believer in word of mouth, and in times of crisis like this, community is huge,” Sampson said. “Our little rally cry that I coined is “‘If we want to enjoy them later, we have to support them now.’ If you want to sit in the Cerulean beer garden when things go back to normal, support them now.”
Sampson said individuals are buying and donating to the gift card surge, along with companies, which are handing them out to employees.
“Because of the discount to the community, it serves the businesses, but it also serves the community,” Sampson said. “Somebody who may not have gotten a meal from one of the restaurants because they look at their budget and it doesn’t work, but now they can.”
Because of the reach giftcardsurge.com has attained, Sampson and Hoskins aren’t stopping their mission to help.
Next on their agenda: Helping hungry kids.
“I’ve spoken to (Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent) Dr. (David) Hoffert and (WCS Director of Food and Nutrition Services) Marci (Franks) about the meals for the kids,” Sampson said.
“We know there’s kids out there that need to eat, and so we want to be able to use the attention that this gift card site is getting to help feed those kids,” Sampson said. “There shouldn’t be a kid in this town, this county that goes hungry. Forget about the why. It’s a child.”
A section on their website allows for people to donate for their “Hungry Kids” campaign. Sampson said they are still figuring out the logistics for the Hungry Kids idea, but that they should be figuring that out in the very near future after a few more conversations are had.
“People can start donating right now. Every penny that comes through, and that’s what’s great about the website, if somebody jumps on there and does a donation to feed kids, 100% of that money goes directly toward feeding kids,” Sampson said. He said he plans to speak with Combined Community Services and decide whether or not the Hungry Kids money will be a direct donation to them or, “goes to buying let’s say we work with Mad Anthony’s, for example, and they do 200 pulled pork sandwiches with chips, and we buy those at a discount and that helps put people to work over there. It’s more than just, ‘Here’s money.’ It’s an economic boost as well as a financial boost. If we can take that money, spend it at restaurants and they’re the ones actually preparing the food, it puts employees to work and puts a paycheck in that household.”
Sampson said the response from the community and the support people are giving to local businesses has been phenomenal.
“The whole thing was Matt and I’s perspective on serving is through an intense filter of positivity and optimism,” Sampson said. “We have an amazing community. We have to stay positive and have the mentality that I’m gonna grow through this, not go through this.”
When Gov. Eric Holcomb ordered all bars and restaurants to close their dining rooms to help slow the spread of coronavirus in late March, Keith Sampson and Matt Hoskins decided they wanted to do something to help.
“Matt Hoskins, the owner of Payprotec, and I had a conversation and we said we gotta do something to help these area restaurants. They’re not gonna make it,” Sampson said.
That’s when Hoskins came up with the idea of www.giftcardsurge.com.
“Payprotec put in a bunch of a money at first, and then Matt reached out to people he knew, and then we reached out to area restaurants,” Sampson said. “And we took that money and bought gift cards from them. It gives them immediate cash, without having to produce a product.”
Sampson said he went around to area restaurants, making conversations and promoting the restaurants on Facebook Live and their website.
The website allows people to donate money to purchase gift cards which are resold on the site at discounted rates. Sampson ships the gift cards to people who purchase them from his house.
“The response from the community has been absolutely phenomenal,” he said.
They’ve spent close to $30,000 buying gift cards.
The idea is to put cash into the hands of restaurant owners through the gift cards, and also to give the restaurants attention.
“At the end of the day, I tend to look at marketing and sales as two very different things,” Sampson said. “You have to change the word marketing to attention, and when a business has attention, then you can turn it into sales.”
The restaurants involved in Gift Card Surge right now include Cerulean; Creighton’s Crazy Egg Cafe & Coffee Bar; Downtown Eatery & Spirits; El Arriero; Mad Anthony’s Lake City Tap House; Mi Lindo Acapulco; Noa Noa; Oak & Alley; One Ten Craft Meatery; Rua; Taqueria el Comal; and Three Crowns Coffee.
Sampson said the restaurateurs love the idea, and that gift card surge is going to expand.
“We’re actually opening the doors up to more people,” Sampson said. “We looked at the restaurants that don’t have the financial backing, and so that was the idea of why we did it that way, but moving this thing into perpetuity, I can now open it up to whoever. I would like to keep it within Kosciusko County, but it can be a restaurant, retail, a chain (restaurant) or whatever.”
Originally, Sampson and Hoskins thought they’d just get some donations and buy the gift cards then give the gift cards away and recycle the donated money into buying another surge of gift cards and be done.
“But it is so much more than that now,” Sampson said.
Any business owner or manager who would like to discuss being a part of the website can contact Sampson at [email protected] for more information.
“I’m a big believer in word of mouth, and in times of crisis like this, community is huge,” Sampson said. “Our little rally cry that I coined is “‘If we want to enjoy them later, we have to support them now.’ If you want to sit in the Cerulean beer garden when things go back to normal, support them now.”
Sampson said individuals are buying and donating to the gift card surge, along with companies, which are handing them out to employees.
“Because of the discount to the community, it serves the businesses, but it also serves the community,” Sampson said. “Somebody who may not have gotten a meal from one of the restaurants because they look at their budget and it doesn’t work, but now they can.”
Because of the reach giftcardsurge.com has attained, Sampson and Hoskins aren’t stopping their mission to help.
Next on their agenda: Helping hungry kids.
“I’ve spoken to (Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent) Dr. (David) Hoffert and (WCS Director of Food and Nutrition Services) Marci (Franks) about the meals for the kids,” Sampson said.
“We know there’s kids out there that need to eat, and so we want to be able to use the attention that this gift card site is getting to help feed those kids,” Sampson said. “There shouldn’t be a kid in this town, this county that goes hungry. Forget about the why. It’s a child.”
A section on their website allows for people to donate for their “Hungry Kids” campaign. Sampson said they are still figuring out the logistics for the Hungry Kids idea, but that they should be figuring that out in the very near future after a few more conversations are had.
“People can start donating right now. Every penny that comes through, and that’s what’s great about the website, if somebody jumps on there and does a donation to feed kids, 100% of that money goes directly toward feeding kids,” Sampson said. He said he plans to speak with Combined Community Services and decide whether or not the Hungry Kids money will be a direct donation to them or, “goes to buying let’s say we work with Mad Anthony’s, for example, and they do 200 pulled pork sandwiches with chips, and we buy those at a discount and that helps put people to work over there. It’s more than just, ‘Here’s money.’ It’s an economic boost as well as a financial boost. If we can take that money, spend it at restaurants and they’re the ones actually preparing the food, it puts employees to work and puts a paycheck in that household.”
Sampson said the response from the community and the support people are giving to local businesses has been phenomenal.
“The whole thing was Matt and I’s perspective on serving is through an intense filter of positivity and optimism,” Sampson said. “We have an amazing community. We have to stay positive and have the mentality that I’m gonna grow through this, not go through this.”
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