Jim Mason
Columns
November 27, 2008 12:17 AM
Jim Mason
It was way before the plazas came to Main Street West and SmartCentres to Ringwood.
A friend pronounced he had, once again, completed his Christmas shopping without leaving the Greater Metropolitan Stouffville Area.
It took some ingenuity and he didn’t have a list of Santa-like proportions (that was his wife), but he got it done.
Just like the year before and the one previous to that.
The local shopping trip was done partly to avoid mayhem (he works in the city all week and didn’t need the hassle) but mostly to support the family’s adopted home town. And throw in a workout or two, as he did most of it on foot.
Why not support the people who support us? The stores, firms and restaurants with their logos on the front of the kids’ soccer and hockey jerseys and their names in the list of supporters at the fundraiser or concert you were at last weekend.
And when we shop at the local stores, especially those with local owners and local employees, there’s a good chance that money we drop will be recycled several times in our growing small town.
There’s onus on the stores, too, to provide top-notch service. Websites and computerized record keeping are wonderful tools, when they’re accurate. Twice in recent months I had stores (one in Stouffville, one not) tell me they had several of an item, online and on the phone. Twenty minutes later, in person, they had nothing but an apology for me.
And employees must ramp up their game, as jobs and stores disappear almost daily. I don’t want to listen as two clerks discuss last night’s dalliances as I did Saturday. A smile, some direction and a thank-you, please. That’s all.
Now, the shameless plug. The Sun-Tribune is running a Christmas shopping contest, giving you a shot at some cool prizes and an opportunity to share some small-town love. Look in Saturday’s paper for more, if you didn’t see it in the last couple of weekend reads.
Jim Mason is editor of The Sun-Tribune.