Affton Chamber deals up playing card bonus for local advertisers

By Steve Birmingham

"We always do something to celebrate our anniversaries and our 60th is this year," Executive Director Joan Edleson said. "For the 50th, we did Afftonopoly and we've been sold out of those for years, so we tried to come up with something new and something the small companies could participate in."

The chamber charged businesses to advertise on the Affton version of the popular Monopoly game. Unlike Monopoly, Afftonoply did not have any premium spaces. Advertisers paid $300 per square no matter where the square was located on the board.

The playing cards are just as popular, but at $25 per card, they are attractive to just about any company, Edleson said.

Dealing out spots to advertisers has proved popular. The chamber has lined up advertisers for all 52 cards, plus the Joker.

The chamber has 1,000 decks on hand and has sold about 200 so far.

"We sell the decks for $5 each and that helps pay for anything we do during the year," she said.

The advertising pays for novelty items the chamber hands out to members.

"We do scratch pads, post-it notes, ornaments at Christmas, ink pens and we'll probably do rulers," she said. "All those things we'll give away to chamber members to celebrate our 60th Anniversary."

The decks are available from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Affton Chamber of Commerce's office, 10203 Gravois Road, behind Sam's Steakhouse.

Steve Birmingham can be contacted at sbirmingham@yourjournal.com