BOZEMAN — A lot of people just received their third stimulus check, and the hope is that it will stimulate the local economy by providing people with extra money to spend.
MTN News surveyed people in downtown Bozeman to see what some of their plans are for their stimulus checks.
“I’m going to make an eye appointment and get new contacts,” said Clay Hunt.
“I’m just going to save that money,” Shai Sithar explained.
“I don’t know. I guess probably pay bills. I mean payoff… yeah I don’t know or put it in savings," said John Regier.
"Not sure yet probably paying off some bills and getting some necessities that we need," said Allie Zanierihale.
“Put it in savings,” said Billy Marchington Jr.
The usual downtown customer traffic flowed through Main Street, but the consensus from several business owners was uncertainty or no increase yet.
“I haven’t seen a huge uptick in visitors. I don’t think because of the stimulus checks. To me, it seems a lot more like families, spring break time, maybe visiting MSU, older families,” explained Tess Wood with Rockford Coffee.
“We haven’t seen an uptick from stimulus checks yet. We have just seen an uptick because of feel-good weather,” said Joby Dynneson at Bangtail Bicycle and Ski.
“There have been bigger sales this week, but it’s also spring break, and it’s hard to say. We don’t usually have a large increase for spring break but people’s travel patterns might be different this year,” said Kelly Walunis with the Co-op Downtown.
But regardless of what people decide to spend their $1,400 on, many are thankful for the extra money.
“It makes a huge difference. Anything helps, and of course, the Coronavirus has impacted my income, so it’s a wonderful and very nice little boost,” Hunt reiterated.
If you meet the qualifications and you still haven’t received funds yet, you can always check the status on the IRS website.
