Try shopping at home

My husband and I are long-time American Fork residents and because we've lived and worked here for many years, we feel some loyalty to the hometown businesses.
Many of the shop and business owners are friends and comrades.
We feel their pain when their livelihood is threatened.
So we try to shop "at home" when we can.
We buy groceries inside the city limits. We try to moderate our online shopping when possible.
But it's hard.
The local merchants don't necessarily make it all that possible.
For instance, when Marc needed some Scout socks to complete his WoodBadge uniform we trucked on down to the old Christensen's store. They have a display of Scout shirts in the window and we remember the days when this store was big time in the community.
The door was locked and the interior was dark. "Not open on Saturdays" read the small sign in the window.
I came back on a Tuesday just after noon. "Only open from 1:00 to 3:30 daily" said the smaller sign in the window.
I couldn't believe it. I had money in my hand and the need to purchase but in order to do that I would have to return during the magic window.
We gave up and drove to Orem to buy what we needed.
Yesterday I decided to buy the blinds we need for the upstairs bedroom.
Since it's "designed" in pinks, yellows and greens, I wanted matching blinds.
But I didn't want to pay $100 for such blinds.
We drove down to the local Lowe's. Nobody was at the desk.
We hung around until a boy showed up who could call somebody for us.
She arrived fairly shortly but she knew nothing about blinds, what they cost, what colors they came in, what sizes were available, nothing.
She had a nice smile and she apologized all over the place.
But the end result was, she couldn't help and so today I'm ordering blinds off the Internet.
It's a little cheaper, very easy to do and my problem is now solved.
It's just a shame that local businesses can't survive in this economy, huh?