APRO member Continental Rental dba Continental Home Centers recently collected more than a full TON of nonperishable food items and over $800 in cash for local pantries and charities across Michigan through a Help Stock the Food Pantry Sale.
Continental’s deals-for-donations promotion offered either a $3 first-week payment or a $33 first-month payment on any new rental agreement to customers who gave either three cans of food or $5 cash to the effort.
“We wanted a sale to give back to our communities, especially organizations that help others,” said Continental General Manager Thomas Roupe. “The groups we contributed to told us many companies say they’ll help, but don’t follow through. We said we’d help, and our employees and customers really stepped up.”
All 24 Continental locations participated in the promotion, ultimately donating 2,119 pounds of food and $861 cash to a variety of local pantries and charities, including Feeding America West Michigan, Manna Pantry of Big Rapids, Otsego County Food Pantry, and United Way of Clare & Gladwin Counties, among others.
Roupe said that the company promoted the event via website banners, social media, and in-house signage, and that Continental employees focused in on building donations, rather than straight-up selling, to make the sale a spectacular success.
“All sales and promotions are about getting your people energized and motivated,” said Roupe. “My top-performing teams, which already have high energy and great teamwork, led the charge. But this is such a feel-good sale, it’s easy to generate companywide engagement.”
