Area merchants cite fuel savings
07/30/2008
GARDINER -- Local business boosters ask: Why drive all the way to Lewiston or
Augusta when you can save on gas and find what you need right here in downtown
Gardiner?
They said the fewer times
you have to drive to a nearby city, the more gas you'll save.
Polly Hathaway of Gardiner
said she shops as often as she can at her local stores. Tuesday afternoon she
was headed to Reny's Department Store on Water Street.
"Why should I go to
other places when I know I can find it right here at Reny's?" Hathaway
said on her way into the store. "I can't see running to Augusta or
anywhere out of our town for something I can get right here locally."
Linda Edgerton, director
of Gardiner Main Street, has issued a "Downtown Challenge" to
residents.
With gas prices more than
$4 a gallon, she said it just makes sense to do the math when it comes to
traveling outside your local area.
She said you can add $4.10
to the price of the items you bought if you traveled round trip to Augusta
including driving through giant parking lots and from one shopping center to
the other with a car that get 20 miles to the gallon.
"The whole point of
this is to make people stop and think," Edgerton said. "One Sunday
evening, I needed one item that was $4. I live in Bowdoin, and if I drove down
to Topsham it would have, for me, been equivalent to a tank of gas. Or I could
go to our little local general store and pay $1 more for the item, and my gas
would cost about 75 cents."
Edgerton says buying local
saves on gas and time, but also is a way to support local businesses that, in
turn, support the community.
Chain stores return very
little of what their stores take in back to the communities where they operate,
she said. A recent study in Maine by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance found
that only 14 cents of a dollar spent at a so-called "big box" store
remains in the state's economy.
In contrast, the study
found that independent retailers spend more than half their revenue locally.
They bank at local banks, hire local accountants, advertise in local media and
require many other local services that chains do not.
The whole month of June,
Mary Weiss, proprietor of Corniche on Water Street, displayed cookbooks that
Hospice Grieving Children's Program in Gardiner was selling to raise money for
its lending library.
"(Customers) support
us and we support the community in a way the big box stores can't or won't
do," Weiss said.
Paula Collier, an artist
from South Gardiner, said she always tries to shop locally. Tuesday afternoon,
Collier and her friend, Louise LaMarque Main, of Pittston, met at A1 To Go for
lunch.
"This year I bought
all my annuals at Harvey's (Hardware) and did it specifically because I wanted
to shop locally," said Collier, of Pittston. "I shop at Reny's and I
go to Steve's to get my art framed and I bank here. It saves on gas. I only
have to travel five miles instead of 15."
LaMarque said she enjoys
eating at local restaurants like the Mad Dog Pub on Water Street.
Edgerton said now's the
time parents have to start thinking about buying school supplies and school
clothes for their children.
School supplies can be
found at the bricks-and-mortar stores in town like Reny's, but also up the
street at Hannaford or Rite Aid.
Heidi Hilton, owner of
Raggamuffins, a consignment store on Water Street, said she carries all brands
including Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle and Gap.
The previously owned
clothing -- used or never been worn -- is screened, washed and ironed before it
goes out on the hangers.
Hilton said she donates
clothing to local churches and from time to time helps out fire victims and
people who are not as well off as others.
"I live in Pittston
and try to shop locally whenever I can," Hilton said. "Before I
bought the store, I shopped here two or three times a week. We have unique
jewelry and accessories -- purses and belts -- so you can do a whole outfit
that would cost you $75 at the mall for under $20 at our store."
Sarah Smith, of Randolph,
a registered nurse at the MaineGeneral Medical Center, said stores in town have
the same brand names as the big box stores and at decent prices.
"I think about the
quality and saving money," Smith said. "I'm not travelling as much
and I'm being more conservative to save on gas."
April Hall, supervisor at
Reny's, said stores in the big shopping malls can't match Reny's personal
relationship it has with its customers.
In Gardiner, she said many
of the people who shop at Reny's actually walk to their store, especially the
elderly.
"We have regular
customers and have that personal interaction with them because they do keep
coming," Hall said. "They don't have that at the bigger stores. And
by coming here they're saving on gas."
Mechele Cooper --
623-3811, Ext. 408
mcooper@centralmaine.com