Shopping Locally Pays

By Joe Christopher

When your shopping dollars stay in Washington County they have a tremendous impact on the economy locally and on you as well.

A few years ago I read the following quote on a billing statement: “Please pay me so I can pay them, so they can pay them, so that they can pay them.” Now, these words were espoused on a payment request from one business to another, but they are so appropriate to my point. If we, as residents of Washington County apply this passage literally in our own shopping practices we will shop in our locality so that the merchants can pay their employees so the employees can shop here as well for goods and services thereby creating an unbroken circle of dollars flowing through our local economy.

Think about it, we are spending a great deal of time, effort and funds to create new and better jobs for this area. Significant impact could be achieved toward this goal by just keeping our shopping dollars at home.

There are many options for us to shop out of town in today's high-tech world. There are television-shopping networks that offer pretty pictures of countless products for sale at what appear to be “bargain basement prices". They are not always what they are purported to be and you don't find out until you have ordered, paid for and received them. Then the hassles of returning them are not a pleasure.

There is the much-vaunted Internet with a plethora of products and/or services available by the mere push of a key on your computer. Not all of those that offer products on the "net" are legitimate. It is a classic case of "caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware).

I am sure, like me, you are inundated with junk mail catalogs and offers for unbelievable low prices on everything you could ever imagine from all over the world. Now, am I saying there is no value to any of these marketing venues? No I am not.

What I would like you to consider is the relative value of all of these "bargains". Do these merchants employ you, your friends or relatives? Do they contribute to the tax base of southern Utah? Most emphatically they do not!! Not one penny.

I ask that you use these services for information and education about the market and then offer your local merchants an opportunity to compete.

Doesn’t it just make sense? Shop locally and save.