Dear Editor:
Thank you for the article on buying local in the Friday, October 26th edition. However, I believe it important to correct the following paraphrase: Buying products online, he added, guarantees that virtually no money from the purchase will stay in the local area.
I was at that event and would have noticed had he stated the idea in that way, as I own a work from home / online business. However, Mr. ONeill did make the point if we shop online at Amazon.com there would be no economic benefit to our local community.
In light of the fact www.91sheep.ca just won the Kootenay Business Magazines top award for Coolest Kootenay Website, it is misleading to infer through your article that website income earned doesnt benefit our local economy. Isnt 91sheeps owner shopping in grocery stores, buying gas etc right here in the Columbia Valley?
With more and more local businesses choosing to offer online shopping for a variety of reasons, one of them being ease of purchase for customers, I think it is important to understand web shops located here are local businesses and do their part in contributing to the valley in a variety of ways.
I would also like to highlight something Mr. ONeill said about a study done in Langford, a Vancouver Island community with a population of 17,940 and median income of $31,000.
If local people shifted only 10 per cent of their shopping dollars currently spent elsewhere, the estimated impact on the economy of that local community would be over $55 million.
If we halved their population figure and applied it to the Columbia Valley, we could expect an impact of, conservatively, $25 million added to the valleys economy. This is food (and shoes, skincare and furnishings) for thought.
Yes, gas costs more here. But factor in the convenience of not waiting at traffic lights for seven minutes in an idling car, not driving great distances just to get to work, to say nothing of the stress factors, and it evens out.
Dorothy Isted
Invermere, B.C.
