Los Alamos Blue Bucks Promotion Delivers Local Small-Business Boost

The Los Alamos Chamber of Commerce on Dec. 30, 2025 announced the results of the 2025 Enterprise Bank & Trust Blue Bucks promotion, a holiday shopping incentive designed to steer consumer spending to local businesses. The promotion ran from Nov. 28 through Dec. 13 and included participation by more than 50 downtown and county retailers, restaurants, and service providers.

Individual cash winners announced included a $1,000 prize awarded to Stana McKitrick, a $500 prize to Marla Bookhout, and a $250 prize to Jennifer Jordan. The business award of $1,000 went to LA Bootery, owned by Carolyn Cowan. In addition to the headline cash prizes, several local customers received gift baskets as part of the campaign. The Chamber credited Enterprise Bank & Trust for sponsoring the promotion and helping underwrite the awards.

At its core the Blue Bucks program functioned as both a direct transfer of prize money and a marketing subsidy for small businesses during a condensed 16-day window. With at least 52 participating businesses, the campaign concentrated promotional activity and likely increased short-term foot traffic and sales for merchants featured in the program. The combined cash awards announced total $2,750, with additional in-kind value provided through gift baskets and the promotional boost to the winning business.

For Los Alamos County residents and business owners, the promotion’s significance extends beyond individual prizes. Holiday-period campaigns like Blue Bucks seek to reallocate a portion of consumer spending toward local vendors at a time when retail competition from online and out-of-area options intensifies. Even modest prize pools can amplify visibility for small retailers and generate new customer relationships that persist after the promotion ends.

From a policy perspective, events sponsored by local banks and chambers offer a low-cost mechanism to support small businesses and encourage community spending. Measuring the program’s success would ideally include tracking participating businesses’ sales lift, customer retention rates, and any change in event-time foot traffic compared with prior years. Those metrics can guide future investments and help quantify the economic return on sponsorship dollars.

The Chamber emphasized the promotion’s goal of supporting local businesses in the holiday season and thanked Enterprise Bank & Trust for its sponsorship. For merchants and residents, Blue Bucks served as a reminder that coordinated, locally focused promotions can shift consumer behavior and provide a short-term economic stimulus to the county’s retail ecosystem.