REEDSPORT — Ingenuity is part of business, and Reedsport businesses managed to turn that into a fun evening of sales.

Stores partnered for the traditional Moonlight Madness sale event and stayed open late and offered special discounts for the holidays. But this year, there was an added incentive: $500 for the winner of a poker run.

Lighthouse Gallery and Gifts owner Dean Warner, in an effort to move people from business to business in the Old Towne section of Reedsport to the U.S. Highway 101 corridor and eventually to Winchester Bay, organized the run. The object was to entice shoppers to visit participating businesses and get a random playing card from each. The person with the highest hand won a $500 cash prize.

More than 100 people participated.

“We had a lot of people come into the store for the first time and I’m hoping they liked what they saw and will come back,” Warner said.

The poker run idea was a success — but there was a small glitch, Warner said.

 “It seemed to work well, until word got out that someone was holding a hand of four kings.”

Warner said interest seemed to go down at that point, with people losing hope of being able to top the hand.

“The funny thing is, that wasn’t the hand that won,” he said.

Though sales weren’t as good as they were in the past for some businesses, owners still enjoyed the new twist.

“I was kept pretty busy,” Kathi Wall-Meyer of Kathi’s Antiques and Collectibles, said. “This is my third year doing this, the first in this location, and I was moving all night.”

Weather may also have played a part in the success of the night. Temperatures were warmer than normal and it was dry — since the big storm hadn’t hit the region yet.

“This was the best Moonlight Madness I can recall,” Umpqua Discovery Center Director Diane Novak said. “I was born and raised here, have attended Moonlight Madness for as long as I can remember and never saw this many people out taking advantage of it.”