By: Renee Sherrer

I had my eyes opened a bit yesterday. I took my one day off to run some Christmas errands. I drove to my bank (over in Sunset area), over near the mall and near Costco. WOW – the traffic! I mean seriously, I gave up after a while and headed home. WHAT a wasted day!

What REALLY strikes me as odd was that downtown (traffic and parking) was completely SANE, in contrast to the mall areas. It made me wonder why people choose to torture themselves by driving to shop at the mall.

When you buy local, Oh, like say, a store in the downtown area, your dollars STAY in Bellingham. Jobs STAY in Bellingham. Businesses STAY in Bellingham. Your quality of life improves because your community grows and becomes more rich. So give your community the gift of supporting the local businesses.

Shop downtown, park in the parking garage. Walk around and enjoy the Christmas decorations and windows. Have a coffee or lunch, see a movie, shop. There is SO much to do and it’s SO easy to have an enjoyable day… DOWNTOWN!