Businesses Helping Businesses.
And Now, the Award That Proves It.
“The Award Money Can’t Buy”
The People’s Premier Business Choice Award is presented by UBA — United Business Alliance Group, founded in San Antonio in 2013. It is never sold and never handed out by a committee you pay. Real customers nominate the business, vetted secret shoppers test it for a month, and the score decides. Inaugural award cycle — nominations now open.
What This Award Is — and What It Isn’t
Most “best of” awards work like this: a business pays a fee, fills out a form, and a plaque arrives. Nobody asked its customers a single question. This award was built the opposite way — and the difference is the whole point.
Earned, Never Bought
There is no package a business can purchase that ends with this award on its wall. A business either passes the shopping, or it doesn’t receive it. That is the rule that makes it worth winning — and worth trusting.
Started by Customers
The process begins with nominations from real customers. Owners cannot nominate themselves, and neither can their employees — the introduction to every nominated business is carried by the words of the people it serves.
Scored by Strangers
Once a business applies, UBA’s vetted secret shoppers visit anonymously across 30 days and score the real experience — service quality, honesty in pricing, and follow-through. The business receives the full report either way.
The Path to the Award
Five steps, in the open. No shortcuts exist — that’s the design.
Customers Nominate
People nominate the business here. When a business collects enough verified nominations, UBA reaches out.
The Introduction
UBA introduces itself and shows the owner the actual nominations their customers wrote.
Application & Gift Cards
The business applies (an application fee applies) and donates gift cards that fund the anonymous shopping visits.
30 Days of Secret Shopping
Vetted shoppers score the business anonymously across a full month, on the seven-point rubric on the For Businesses page.
The Report Decides
A passing score earns the award. Falling short brings a consultation and a second round — the findings, and a real chance to rise.
Your Part Is Step One
Think of the shop that tells you the truth, the crew that follows up, the place that treats Tuesday like Saturday. That’s who this award exists for.
A Physical Award Worthy of the Standard
Winners receive a presentation-grade award built from UBA’s original gold torch-and-stars brand art — heavy, permanent, and impossible to buy. Three design directions were developed for the inaugural cycle; see them in full on The Award page.
Membership: The Community Support Network
UBA membership is how shoppers join the alliance — a members-only community support network. Members get access to the alliance’s whole network of local businesses: every member business in the directory, and — highlighted at the top — the Premier Businesses, the local shops that have actually earned The People’s Premier Business Choice Award, each honoring a standing member discount, all year long. Award winners are highlighted everywhere UBA markets and advertises, and featured in the members-only newsletter. You shop local with confidence, local businesses earn your loyal traffic, and the alliance grows stronger with every storefront added. Everybody feeds everybody — and our mission is to fill the community with Premier businesses.
The Member Network
Every local business in the alliance is here: member businesses with their profiles and offers — and highlighted at the top, the award winners, nominated by their customers and scored by secret shoppers. Each winner prints the standing member discount it offers, exactly as stated, honored all year. Membership can buy a business a listing; it can never buy the award — the Premier highlight is earned, never sold.
$49 a Year
One membership, the whole network, all year. $49 per year — the fee funds the directory, the member card, and the community promotion that puts members in front of winners. It never touches the judging.
A Community Support Network
Members are shoppers committed to buying local first. Your membership keeps this city’s money — and its best businesses — right here at home, and gives every non-winning business one more reason to earn its way in.
Join the Founding-Member List
Honest timing: the first Premier Businesses haven’t been crowned yet, and no member businesses are listed yet — the inaugural award cycle is being nominated right now, and the member directory opens as the first member businesses join and the first class of winners is crowned. Membership checkout isn’t open yet either. Join the founding-member list below — free, no charge today — and you’ll be emailed first when checkout opens. Membership will be $49/year.
You’re on the founding-member list. 🎉
Check your inbox for a confirmation email. When membership checkout opens, you’ll be emailed first — and you’ll hear it first when the member directory opens and when the first Premier Businesses are crowned.
The Card Behind the Membership
This membership carries a name with a history: the Community Plus Rewards Card — designed by Rocky Garcia in San Antonio in 2013, carried through his Live Business Broadcast Network years, and relaunched for 2026 as the alliance’s digital member card. See the original card, the original flyer, and the original pitch film.
Two Cycles a Year — and the First One Is Open
The award is presented twice a year, in a spring cycle and a fall cycle, so every class of winners means something. The inaugural cycle is underway right now, and it starts exactly where the whole idea starts: with a customer speaking up.