Try local stores for last minute gifts

Christmas is only nine days away, which means people everywhere are scrambling to buy those last minute gifts for family and friends. Others are just now thinking about beginning their Christmas shopping. No matter what category you fit into, we would like to encourage you to do your shopping here in Custer. At the very least, look around town and try to find things on your list before heading elsewhere.

Custer has more stores than ever, and you can undoubtedly find what you are looking for somewhere in town. It’s not just Main Street, either. There are many small business owners and artists in and around Custer who would be happy to make something special for those on your list. If you aren’t sure where you can get what you are looking for in town, contact the Custer Area Chamber of Commerce. They can point you in the right direction, and do so enthusiastically.

By shopping local, you not only help the person you are buying for, but you help the business owner, the town, and, in the long, run, yourself. It is said that every dollar that is spent in town circulates another seven times in town. By shopping locally, you are contributing to the city sales tax, which benefits the town. Every time a road is paved in Custer, or a leaky line is fixed, or a city employee is paid, or some other improvement is made in town, it is in large part due to the sales tax collected in town. The sales tax collected in Rapid City stays in Rapid City.

As chamber of commerce executive director Dave Ressler is so fond of saying, “shop local, and shop often.” There is no need to get in your car and drive 40 miles to shop for something you can find right here in town. From clothing to electronics, wood carvings to knick knacks, it’s all right here in Custer. Still not convinced? Here are a couple more reasons, with the help of staylocal.org, that you should consider keeping your money right here in Custer.

• Locally owned businesses build strong neighborhoods by sustaining communities, linking neighbors and contributing more to local causes.

• Your dollars spent in locally-owned businesses have three times the impact on your community as dollars spent at national chains. When shopping locally, you simultaneously create jobs, fund more city services through sales tax, invest in neighborhood improvement and promote community development.

• Entrepreneurship fuels America’s economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.

• A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based, not on a national sales plan, but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.

While not everything can be found in Custer, you would be surprised to find out just how much can be. So before you head north or south to those big box stores or jump online to do your shopping, support your town, your neighbor and yourself by seeing all that our town has to offer.