December is here and there is no getting away from what that means: you are going to make a lot of shopping decisions this month! Since April of this year, I have made a conscious effort to make the majority of my purchases locally. I have had good success, but there are a few things I have learned along the way that can make shopping in my hometown easier and more successful. The first thing - which I learned early on - is that shopping locally requires a bit of planning and takes more time. For example, I want to fuel up my vehicle at home whenever possible. In the past, if I had a meeting or event in Saskatoon and only a quarter of a tank when I left home I would have to stop in another town to fill up. If I had a half tank of gas when leaving home, I would need to fill up in Saskatoon before returning home. This all changes when you deliberately shop locally. Now I need to plan ahead so that I will fuel up the vehicle the day prior (since leaving for a 9am meeting in Saskatoon means I leave home before the local gas stations open!) Having to slow down and plan properly means I can have someone else pump the gas for me (gas stations in our town are full-serve) and I certainly do not miss having to pump my own gas in the city (self-serve is the norm), standing at the pump for an eternity figuring out how to pre-pay because no one trusts eachother in the city!

Another valuable lesson I have learned is that if a store doesn't have the product I am looking for, in most instances all I have to do is ask. Thankfully, customer service in small-towns is generally greater than in the city and when the employees notice me standing in front of a shelf (concentrating rather than visiting) they say "Bevra, what can I help you find ?" Every time I have asked for a product I cannot find, the stores in my home town have ordered it in. This may not always happen in the city!

My favorite lesson learned while making the conscious decision to keep my money among business owners I know personally is this: I have found things here in Spiritwood that I previously assumed were not available here. Simply by promising myself that I would check the stores here first, I have discovered that there is very little that cannot be purchased without the added expense of a trip to the city. And I look forward to discussing that topic in a future blog post!