Albert Lea pretty much has five areas of commerce: downtown, North Bridge Avenue, East Main Street, West Main Street and South Broadway Avenue.

Between them, there&8217;s more than meets the eye. Unfortunately, we overheard a local resident inform a family from out of town that there was &8220;diddly-squat&8221; for shopping in Albert Lea.

That&8217;s not true.

Perhaps being in the same state as as the Mall of America gives cities in greater Minnesota an inferiority complex for shopping, but plenty of regional towns across America offer quaint discoveries that shoppers can&8217;t find in the big cities. Albert Lea is no different.

You can find antiques, gift shops, specialty stores, health food, restaurants with local flare, clothing, furniture, hardware, books, discount retail, groceries, cosmetics, shoes, tires and the list goes on longer than we have space here to print. Maybe we don&8217;t have the glitz, glam, traffic headaches and high prices that the Mall of America and bigger cities offer, but Albert Lea&8217;s stores often have better service and friendlier smiles than big-city stores.

Not only is it wise to shop local &8212; especially if you like your money to stay in the community and your sales taxes to support local needs &8212; it is wise to suggest that others shop local. We want their money to go to our store owners, and we want their sales taxes in our coffers.

A better answer for that local resident to make would have been: &8220;What do you want?&8221;

Chances are, Albert Lea had the goods the out-of-towners sought.