Status Proposed 12-month pilot · not live yet · funding decision in the 2027 budget cycle Soft launch target: Small Business Saturday, Nov 28, 2026
Superior RewardsSuperior, Wisconsin Join the founding list

Superior Rewards · Shop-local cash back for Superior, Wisconsin

Shop Superior. Get 5% back. Spend it here again.

The Blatnik Bridge closes to traffic in 2027 for four to five years. Superior Rewards pays shoppers cash back at locally owned Superior businesses, and every reward can only be spent at another one. Businesses join free.

Every purchase helps build a stronger Superior.

Sign up your business See how it works or email [email protected]
Prepared for City of SuperiorDouglas CountyThe Development AssociationSuperior BID
Cost to a participating business
$0

No equipment, no fees, no change at the register. You keep the full sale. The rewards come from a community fund.

33,000+
vehicles a day cross the Blatnik today
March 2027
full closure begins, all traffic to the Bong Bridge
Oct 2031
new bridge targeted to open
$1.8B
replacement, the largest project in the region’s history
Why now

A five-year detour, not a bad weekend.

Every Minnesota customer who used to drive five minutes across I-535 now faces the Bong Bridge detour. The Development Association’s August 2026 surveys say what owners already feel: a meaningful share of Superior revenue comes from across the bridge, and most consumers expect to cross less often.

The real risk is not one slow quarter. It is four years of Duluth-side habits that do not reverse when the bridge reopens. MnDOT and WisDOT have said plainly that compensating businesses is outside their role. That leaves it to local partners.

Bridge to Progress, the BID’s marketing fairs, Hard Hat Happy Hours and the UW-Superior ZIP-code study are already moving. What is missing is a direct, measurable reason for a customer to make the detour this week. Superior Rewards is built to be that tool, plugged into the Promote pillar, not competing with it.

Construction calendar

Now

Phased work underway

Lane and ramp staging ahead of the full closure.

March 2027

Full closure begins

All 33,000+ daily vehicles reroute to the Bong Bridge and Superior’s street grid.

2027–2031

Four to five years of detour

Retail, dining, entertainment and the construction trades carry the exposure.

October 2031

New bridge opens

Site work finishes into 2032. The question is who is still open on Tower Avenue.

Construction barricades across the bridge approach at dusk
March 2027The approach closes to all traffic. Phased work is already staged.
The Bong Bridge crossing the harbor in morning fog
The detourEvery Minnesota trip reroutes over the Bong Bridge for four to five years.
Brick storefronts on a downtown avenue at blue hour
October 2031Tower Avenue when the new bridge opens. The question is who is still open.
How it works

Four steps. Two local transactions.

Rewards are funded by the City and its partners, not by the business. Because a reward can only be spent at another participating Superior business, every reward dollar crosses a local counter a second time.

A hand opening a shop door marked with a gold decal
Step 1

Join

Download the free Open Rewards app, choose Superior as your community, and link a debit or credit card.

For the businessNothing to install. Eligible businesses are onboarded by the program.
A card tapped on a reader at a shop counter
Step 2

Shop

Pay normally at any participating Superior business. No coupon, no code, nothing to show at the register.

For the businessBusiness as usual. You keep the full sale value.
A phone held at a café table by a harbor window
Step 3

Earn

Cash back posts automatically from the community rewards pool, usually within a few days.

For the businessListed in the in-app directory and in program marketing.
A shopper carrying a bag from one storefront to the next
Step 4

Spend

Redeem rewards at other participating Superior businesses. The money stays in town.

For the businessA second, reward-funded visit from a local or returning customer.
What shoppers earn

5% everywhere. 10% where the closure hits hardest.

5%

Everyday base rate

Cash back on every qualifying purchase at a participating Superior business, year-round, from the community rewards pool.

Every purchase helps build a stronger Superior.

10%

Cross the Bong bonus

For shoppers with a Minnesota ZIP code, for the length of the closure. A real reason to make the drive.

10%

Construction corridor boost

At businesses nearest the construction zone, where the disruption is heaviest. Englewood ran 15% on its corridor.

10%

Event days

Small Business Saturday, Hard Hat Happy Hour Mondays and festival weekends. Short, promotable spikes.

Cap per transaction
$25
Annual cap per shopper
$300
Cost to businesses
$0
Rates and caps reviewed
Quarterly
Hard Hat Happy Hours · Small Business Saturday · festival weekends

Same great community. A brighter tomorrow.

Runs on Open Rewards, the municipal platform already live in Littleton and Englewood, Colorado, Arlington County, Virginia, El Paso, Texas and Pasadena, California.

Eligibility guardrails

Built for the businesses that make Superior, Superior.

Eligible

  • Independently and locally owned
  • A physical location in Superior, with an option to widen to Douglas County in year two
  • Approved by the program administrator against published criteria
  • Open application. Any qualifying business can apply at any time

Not eligible

  • National chains and franchises
  • Vehicle sales and real estate
  • Financial services and gift card purchases
  • Cannabis, tobacco and vape
  • Gambling
An unmarked work van in a residential driveway Open decision for partners

Do home-services and trade contractors qualify?

They are a flagged at-risk sector, and one of the four most exposed to the closure. But high-ticket jobs would hit the $25 per-transaction cap on nearly every invoice, so the reward would be a rounding error on a furnace and a real cost to the fund. The eligibility policy draft puts this to the funding partners.

Sponsor and funder
City of Superior, Douglas County

Fund the rewards pool and platform. Set eligibility policy.

Administrator
The Development Association

Vendor contract, approvals, budget pacing, reporting to sponsors, under Bridge to Progress.

Business engagement
Superior BID

Door-to-door onboarding, window decals, tie-in to BID events and the ZIP study.

Platform
Open Rewards

App, card-linked tracking, payouts, support, dashboards. No transaction fees on sponsored funds.

Campaign and marketing
Marketing partner

Brand, landing page, paid media, business toolkit, monthly performance reporting.

A shop owner standing in their doorway looking down the avenue
For Superior businesses

Free to join. Nothing changes at your register.

The program handles onboarding. There is no equipment to install, no new point-of-sale system, no transaction fee and no change to how you take payment. You get listed, you get marketed, and you get paid the full sale value.

  • No cost to participate, ever
  • Listed in the app’s participating directory
  • Included in paid media aimed at Duluth, Hermantown and Proctor
  • Window decal and counter QR kit, supplied
  • A second reward-funded visit from customers redeeming nearby
  • Tied into BID events and the UW-Superior ZIP-code study

Be a founding business.

We are building the founding list now so businesses are live and trained before the March 2027 closure. Send your business name, address and a contact, and we will add you to the launch list and the eligibility review.

Join the founding list or email [email protected]
What to includeBusiness name · Address in Superior · Contact name and phone · What you sell

Signing up now is an expression of interest, not a commitment. Final eligibility follows the published criteria once the program is funded.

Year one · Standard scenario

The ask, and what a funded pilot is built to deliver.

Fund a 12-month pilot before the bridge closes, run on Open Rewards and administered through the Bridge to Progress framework. A funding commitment is needed in the 2027 budget cycle this fall so businesses can be onboarded before March. Three scenarios, all planning estimates pending a vendor quote.

Pilot
$85,000
Platform and administration
$20,000
Rewards fund
$50,000
Launch and campaign marketing
$15,000
Projected tracked local spend, about 10x~$830,000
Recommended
Standard
$175,000
Platform and administration
$20,000
Rewards fund
$130,000
Launch and campaign marketing
$25,000
Projected tracked local spend, about 12x~$2.2 million
Full coverage
$315,000
Platform and administration
$25,000
Rewards fund
$250,000
Launch and campaign marketing
$40,000
Projected tracked local spend, about 13x~$4.2 million

Year-one targets, Standard scenario. Reported monthly to sponsors.

100+
participating Superior businesses
4,000+
active shoppers
$2M+
tracked spend at local businesses
25%+
of shoppers with a Minnesota ZIP
60%+
reward redemption rate
40%+
repeat visits, 2+ per quarter
Littleton, CO · live program
~$2M

Grew from a pilot to 3,000+ users and nearly $2 million in stimulated economic activity.

Englewood, CO · live program
~$187K

About $20,000 a year in platform cost plus ~$11,000 in rewards. Raised rewards to 15% on a construction-impacted corridor.

Pasadena, CA · live program
$122K

From a $10,000 initial investment. 85% of surveyed users said the program changed where they shopped.

Planning targets for a proposed pilot, not results. Tracked spend assumes a blended 6% reward rate and full deployment of the fund. Superior has no municipal sales tax, so unlike the Colorado and California programs the return here is preserving storefronts, jobs and the property tax base through the closure, and avoiding a vacancy problem on Tower Avenue when the new bridge opens.

Questions

Straight answers.

The ones business owners and council members ask first.

Is this live yet?
No. Superior Rewards is a proposed twelve-month pilot, prepared for the City of Superior, Douglas County, The Development Association and the Superior BID. A funding decision is needed in the 2027 budget cycle so businesses can be onboarded before the bridge closes. This page exists so businesses can get on the founding list now.
Who pays for the rewards?
The rewards pool is funded by the City, Douglas County and community sponsors, not by the businesses. Participating businesses pay nothing and keep the full value of every sale. Corporate sponsors can fund named bonus weeks on top of the base pool.
Do I need a separate app for Superior?
No. Shoppers download the Open Rewards app, which dozens of cities already run, and select Superior as their community. Superior Rewards is the local campaign brand on top of that platform: the signage, the landing page, the marketing. A custom app would cost more, take longer than the runway before closure, and still need payments, fraud controls and support.
How do you keep the fund from running dry?
Three controls. A $25 cap per transaction limits exposure on big-ticket purchases, a $300 annual cap per shopper spreads the fund across more households, and the budget is paced monthly. If spend runs hot, boosts and caps get adjusted before the program is ever paused.
How is this different from a coupon or a gift card program?
A coupon discounts one sale and costs the business margin. Superior Rewards pays the shopper from a community fund, and the reward can only be redeemed at another participating Superior business. The business keeps full price, and the incentive generates a second local transaction instead of a one-time markdown.
Won’t this just pay for spending that would have happened anyway?
Partly, and that is why the boosts matter more than the base rate. The extra 5% is aimed at Minnesota ZIP codes, at the corridors nearest construction, and at slow periods and events, the spending most at risk of moving to the Duluth side. Reporting pairs program data with the BID and UW-Superior ZIP-code study so the lift can actually be measured.
Does Superior get the money back through sales tax?
No, and it is worth saying plainly. Many sponsor cities recover part of their cost through a municipal sales tax on the new spending. Superior has no municipal sales tax. The return here is preserving storefronts, jobs and the property tax base through the closure, and not having a vacancy problem on Tower Avenue in 2031 when the new bridge opens.
Join the list Email Josh