Dealers around Scranton, Pa., and some other local business owners collaborated to buy more than $61,500 worth of gift cards from area restaurants that have lost significant business during the pandemic.
The idea started with Gibbons Ford owner John Grow and his wife, who wanted to buy gift cards from the restaurants and bars they would normally be patronizing during the holiday season. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf barred indoor dining from Dec. 12 through Jan. 4 after a surge in COVID-19 cases across the state.
Grow, who was raised in the restaurant business, called other dealers across Lackawanna County and said all were eager to join the effort.
"We're competitors but we're friends," Grow told the LNP newspaper in Lancaster, Pa. "Every single dealer — everybody — did not blink an eye. They said, 'What do you want? ... What do you want us to give?' "
