The City of Andalusia is working with local merchants on a shop Andalusia campaign designed to both encourage local residents to shop at home and to bring people to the city.

The promotion, Andy Bucks, gives consumers one chance to win a $1,000 shopping spree with participating merchants for every $10 they spend with those merchants.

“We think this is a great way to promote our local merchants,” Mayor Earl Johnson said. “We think it will bring extra trade into our city. It will encourage our neighbors to come to whop with us and win something significant. And merchants stand in a good position to get the bounty of the shoppers.”

Kimberly Jacobs, an administrative coordinator for the city, is putting the program together. Thursday afternoon, she already had commitments from Beef O’Brady’s, Walker Business Machines and Brooks Hardware. A number of other merchants are considering the promotion and only one has declined to participate, she said. She began contacting merchants this week.

Jacobs hopes to get at least 20 merchants to participate. If 20 merchants participate, those $20 will contribute $50 per month to be used for the monthly drawings. The City will bear the administrative and promotional costs.

Each month, the city will collect entries from participating merchants and conduct a drawing. The winner will receive 10 certificates worth $100 each, redeemable with any participating merchant. If the winner redeems the certificate for items less than $100, the merchants will present them with gift certificates for the balance.

Winners will have three months to spend their bounty, Jacobs said.

“The city will reimburse merchants for the amount redeemed, whether the customer spent $20 or $100 of the certificate,” she said.

“We feel like this is a great way to promote local merchants,” Jacobs said.