TWINSBURG — While small businesses may be struggling during the pandemic, Jackson Comfort Heating and Cooling in Twinsburg is reinvesting in fellow local businesses with a gift card challenge. It works like this: Buy a gift card and they will match a gift card.
“Everyone knows as you can see my hair, we need our hair salons back,” said Doug Jackson, operations manager for Jackson Comfort Heating and Cooling.
Since mid-April, the company has made house calls.
“We want to make sure that we’re able to reinvest, we’re able to keep these people going. And basically, just show that we care,” Jackson said.
If you buy a gift card for a specific restaurant in Northeast Ohio, Jackson Comfort will match it to help keep local dollars with local businesses.
“The challenge that we’ve had to encounter is we’re a dine-in or carry out business. We don’t deliver. So when you take away our dining room, we have about 96 seats in the dining room, that was kind of nervous to see how it would pan out,” said Alex Janotka, general manager for Farinacci Pizza.
Money that was already ear marked for advertising gets funneled right back in to the community that’s supported them.
“That means a lot to us. IT helps to show us that all of these local business are in it together,” said Janotka.
So far, they’ve tallied 104 business cards, but they have budgeted for far more.
“We just felt really that taking care of the people in our community was so much more important than getting a couple extra calls last month. You can’t really put a price on keeping people in business,” Jackson said.
If you would like to purchase a gift card, you’ll find a list of businesses included here.
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