Star Journal Publisher Patrick Wood

Dear Readers,

Amazon Prime—find something you like, place your order, get it a couple of days later, all good. Right?

Wrong.

Every dollar spent on Amazon is a dollar that leaves our community—forever. If you buy from the local grocery store, or clothing store, or shoe store, at least some of that money pays the wages of people who work right here in our community. That’s not true of Amazon, where your dollars are supporting a corporation in Seattle that in 2017 earned $5.6 billion in profit and not only paid no taxes, but received a $137 million REFUND.

Why are we supporting Amazon as it hollows out our communities, leaving behind the darkened stores and shuttered buildings? Well, the obvious answer is that Amazon makes it easy to buy from its web site. That is Jeff Bezos’ defining genius: He created a company that makes it easy to buy from it.

But something easy isn’t always something good. While many of us find it easy to shop at Amazon, worthy local businesses are here to serve you, serving to revitalize our precious public spaces and support our tax base. These committed local entrepreneurs are all around us, paying local employees that might even be your family or friends, and all the while supporting our local community in ways large and small. They deserve our support, even if it means paying a price that is slightly higher than Amazon’s.

So I am going to ask you to do something that isn’t as easy as buying at Amazon. Buy local. Shop right here in our community. Look for opportunities to support the local retailers who are trying to make a living by providing the things you need right here in our community. Those dollars will get spread around to other people in our community, making all of us a little better off. And if enough of us do this, we all will be a lot better off. That won’t enrich Jeff Bezos. But maybe Jeff is rich enough already.

Patrick Wood
Publisher