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In the March 2015 Print Issue

Feb 26, 2015 09:00PM ● By Pamela Johnson
Every iissue of the Bellingham Bulletin contains reminders to shop locally and support our advertisers.  The reason for supporting our advertisers is obvious--as a non-subscription publication, we only have advertising revenue with which to produce and mail/distribute the newspaper; if readers do not support our advertisers, they will discontinue their ads. If that happens often enough, we won't be able to continue produce and mail the Bulletin to residents and businesses every month.

But why (aside from the fact that the majority of our advertisers are local businesses rather than chain stores) do we always encourage shopping locally? Consider the following benefits of buying locally:
1. Builds a Strong Local Economy—Independent local businesses employ a wide array of local supporting services (attorneys, architects, designers, contractors, accountants, insurance brokers, computer consultants, waitstaff, etc.) Local businesses also carry a higher percentage of locally-made goods than the chains, creating more jobs for local producers.
2. Ensures Choice and Diversity—Our freedom of choice is imperiled when a few buyers from national chains choose what reaches consumers. This may be only mildly disturbing for most consumer goods, but truly frightening when you consider the impact on our choice of news sources, books, music and other modes of expression.
3. Maintains Community Character—Look at the results in any “Best of” polls—they’re almost always local businesses. We embrace the idea of distinctive businesses with local character, but often forget their survival depends on our patronage.

Please keep this in mind as you read the March issue--every issue!--of the Bellingham Bulletin. Everyone who receives and reads the paper can make a difference.

We've highlighted some of the articles in the March issue. (You can either click on the individual articles below, or scroll down to the bottom and click on the PDF of the print edition and page through that.) Thank you and happy reading!



March 2015

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