Stop by the clothing boutique Attic Salt in Vincennes, Indiana, and you’re immediately among friends — ones who happen to know your dress size and how to pick the perfect outfit for you. Owner Kristi Morron takes the time to get to know her customers, often texting them when items come into the store that she thinks they’d like.

“It’s like the show ‘Cheers’ in here, because you walk in and I know your name,” she says.

Eight years ago, Morron chose to leave her career as a health care worker to pursue her dream of opening Attic Salt. One non-negotiable was that the store had to be in Vincennes’ downtown.

“I grew up visiting downtown, and there were so many things to go do, but by the time I opened my store, there wasn't as much,” she says. “I wanted people to have a reason to come and walk and check out the stores and eat at the restaurants and do the things.”

From the rise of highway bypasses to the allure of malls to the ease of online shopping, Main Streets have struggled for decades to remain relevant. But the rise of the experience economy, the desire for personalized service and the democratization of retail technology may be giving many shopping districts new life.

Since the store opened, Attic Salt and downtown Vincennes have grown side by side. The boutique has expanded multiple times, including taking over a neighboring space. And these days, quaint downtown Vincennes is a day-trip destination for people from all over the region, including those from much larger cities. Morron modestly accepts a little credit, but she also praises Jamie Neal, head of the Knox County Chamber of Commerce, for the revival.

That's why Morron signed up for a new program Neal launched in December 2022, the Shop Knox County card — even though it sounded far too good to be true. The program’s goal was to promote the regional economy by encouraging shoppers to buy at locally owned businesses by using community-focused gift cards.

“I just finished ordering for Christmas this year, and I have a whole new display because it’s become such a big deal,” Morron says.

In fact, the program has been nothing short of a regional phenomenon. Buying the digital gift card has morphed into a competitive sport and injected more than $500,000 into the local economy, Neal says. It took seven hours to sell out of gift cards the first year; two hours the second and just 25 minutes last year. 

The program's simplicity is key to its popularity among residents and merchants. Early in December, consumers can purchase the Shop Knox County card for up to $100 in value and receive a matching gift card for free. A pool of money from the chamber, the city of Vincennes, and local economic development organizations covers the "free" portion. The cards can only be redeemed at one of the 81 participating merchants, which include everything from restaurants and boutiques to insurance agents and CPAs.

The cards are based on a digital platform from Yiftee, a tech startup founded in 2011 to promote local shopping. The company grew out of something founder Donna Novitsky noticed while she was fundraising for her children’s schools. Local small businesses were always the first to donate when she came calling. They gave gift baskets and discount coupons to the schools, sponsored Little League teams and church events and showed up for their communities again and again.

“I kept thinking, who is helping them?” says Novitsky. “They don’t have marketing departments. They don’t have IT staff. But they are the heartbeat of our communities.”

The Yiftee Community Cards are digital payment cards, branded specifically for a town or region, like the Shop Knox County card or the Spirit Card in Detroit. Today, the digital cards cover more than 700 communities and 20,000 merchants nationwide. The goal is the same everywhere: help small businesses — and communities — thrive by promoting local spending.

Because they run through Mastercard’s existing infrastructure, there's no need for special hardware or point-of-sale integration — store clerks simply typed in the digital card number as they would any other payment card. And now, with Yiftee’s recent integration of Mastercard In Control for Mobile Payments, checkout is even faster and simpler as these cards can now be loaded into mobile wallets and used anywhere with tap-and-go contactless payments.

“It had to be easy,” Novitsky says. “Most of these businesses don’t have the time or bandwidth to deal with anything complicated.”

While the Knox County program is timed for the holidays, its benefits extend into the new year. "Think about when first quarter rolls around — I'm going to walk in with a $20 card because I got it as a gift,” Neal says. “But nine times out of 10, I'm spending $100.”

The chamber itself has benefitted — and not just from looking like a hero for offering the program. The Shop Knox County card requires no heavy lifting for Neal or her small staff, since the Yiftee platform handles all tracking and financial management. Insights gathered from anonymized and aggregated spending data reveals local buying patterns, allowing the chamber to identify where the buying power is concentrated and help secure sponsorships. A local manufacturer who wanted to tap into the card’s success now sponsors the card.

"This card is so huge in our community that having their logo on it is brand recognition for them," Neal says. “The association helps position them as a community supporter and appeals to potential employees and customers.”

The program's success has not gone unnoticed. The chamber regularly fields inquiries from other towns and counties across the country eager to replicate Knox County's model.

Neal also has been impressed with the creativity of consumers when using the cards. She’s heard how families have pooled cards — each buyer is limited to two — to fund wedding rehearsal dinners at local restaurants or buy big-ticket items.

"There's just some really cool stories that come out of the program,” she says, “and it's really generating a lot of excitement and revenue for our small business owners.”

Just like Morron, her customers — both longtime and new — are huge fans of the program. “One customer told me she can shop for Christmas presents and still have money to go out for dinner with her husband,” Morron says. “I love it!”