Save Your Town … Buy Local

Let’s see now … Is that person you sit beside at a high school basketball game a local business owner? Are you friends with that person?

If you answered those questions with a yes then answer this one. Are you doing some of your shopping on the internet? Do you make the 250 mile trip to Billings, the 285 mile trip to Great Falls or the 140 mile trek to Williston to buy stuff you could get in Glasgow but don’t because the items may be a little higher in price locally?

If you make the trips and buy stuff in Billings, Great Falls, Williston or Havre how many of those business owners do you see coming to Glasgow to return the favor? How many of the foreign speaking people you talk to on the internet while ordering things ever come to Valley County to do some shopping?

Yeah, I will say that the local merchants do charge a tad bit more for most things that can be bought in Billings cheaper. They have to charge a bit more for the freight it costs them to get the goods you demand trucked into Glasgow. They have to make a living too, you know.

You have to be able to feed and clothe your family too and every penny you save is very important to you. But we have to start looking beyond today, next week, next month, next year. Especially those of you younger folks who have young children. We have to look up the road maybe 30 years. Maybe 50 years.

Will Glasgow even be here in 50 years?

I can guaran-told you that it won’t if we don’t support local business better than we are now. If you can’t get it locally or if your local merchant can’t order it in for you then ok, order it from wherever you can get it. And buy American when possible.

I had an experience buying local in the past three months that is noteworthy. I bought a Kitchen Aid Mixer from the Saco Dehy. When I got it home and opened the box I discovered it had no beater. See, the beater was part of the package and it wasn’t there.

Picking up the phone I called the 800 number sure that I would be talking with a person in Pakistan or India and would get absolutely nowhere.

Wrong! I actually talked with an American in Chattanooga, Tenn., who was very apologetic when I told her my dilemma and promised to send a beater to me posthaste, if not very quickly. I thanked her very profanely (deeply).

I then examined my new mixer and found it was made in....wait for it....America.

I really don’t know what buying local had to do with that story. I probably would have got my beater if I had bought the mixer in Billings. I guess my point is that I bought American. Buying American AND buying it locally is a two-banger.

There are some great shops and stores in Glasgow. Why drive to Billings?

What I’m saying is that if you sit with a local businessperson at a ball game or in church or at a movie or while buying fish bait at Grannie Grumpus’s fish bait shop and Oriental massage parlor that business person deserves your patronage. The money you spend in his/her Ye Olde Shoppe stays in Glasgow and Valley County and tax money from that sale goes to pay for the hospital where you go when you are sick or injured. It pays for the police force that keeps you safe. It pays for your nice, paved streets. It pays for the nice schools in Glasgow.

See what I mean? Buy local.

That’s it for now, folks.