Are we all shopping locally?

Barb Fate, the property manager at Northbridge Mall, is absolutely right when she says that if people choose to shop out of town there will be fewer stores to choose from in town.

The Doyle’s Hallmark and the Christopher & Banks stores at Northbridge Mall announced last month that they will close in early 2012. Moreover, Albert Lea has seen clothing and shoe stores shutter in recent years: Cato, Schweser’s, Vanity, Claire’s, Tradehome Shoes and now Christopher & Banks. The women who frequented those stores also miss Bath & Body Works.

Are local shoppers of clothing instead going online, to the Twin Cities, to Rochester or to Mankato? If we want local clothing stores, we need local shoppers.

It’s not as though these chains went under. They didn’t have enough local sales to justify the local stores.

And Doyle’s Hallmark went out of business because many of the items it offers are available in grocery stores and other places. It used to be a person pretty much had to go to a Hallmark store to get a Hallmark card or Hallmark goods.

What’s going to keep the stores in our town going is innovation on their part and buying local on our part.

As shoppers, let’s do our part. Let’s shop local.