It’s time for your voices to be heard.
No, an election isn’t in the offing, but something much more fun is now at hand: the Western Wheel’s 2024 Readers’ Choice Awards. The awards program launched yesterday in our annual effort to recognize the best retailers, restaurants and service professionals in the region.
This exercise relies on consumers voting to tell us, and by extension the wider community, who their favourites are in almost 100 categories. We encourage you to show some love to that baker or barber or bookkeeper who goes above and beyond, someone who deserves to be acknowledged for the exceptional service they provide.
For many establishments, this is their one opportunity to receive formal recognition for the work they do year-round, and you know they appreciate the accolades, proudly hanging their Readers’ Choice certificates in windows and behind front counters for all to see. It’s nice for consumers to be able to play a role in publicly saluting these merchants and to ensure they receive the recognition they deserve.
The results of the annual contest also provide guidance to fellow shoppers. As much as soliciting advice from random strangers on Facebook has the possibility of working out, Readers’ Choice compiles the views of many to come up with its winners. It's not scientific, to be sure, but there were 55,000 ballots cast last year so you’re getting a pretty good cross-section of the community weighing in on each of the categories.
Consumers are often passionate about the places they frequent, wanting to do whatever they can to ensure their favourite local businesses thrive, and Readers’ Choice gives them another way to show that support.
All you’ve got to do is cast a ballot at westernwheel.ca. Do right by those businesses that go the extra mile every day.