Presenter: Shopping local preserves the special character of a city and instills pride in its residents. According to Mike Koons, president of the Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, by supporting local business we preserve unique qualities about a city which can encourage tourism. How? Just think of the places where you take your out of town guests for dining and shopping. Maybe it's breakfast at Randy's or going to the Sugar Bowl for ice cream? These places give our town a special identity.

Buying local keeps us from looking exactly like every other city dominated by chains and big box stores. By shopping local, you also encounter the people who preserve a town's character. In their book Better Together, Restoring the American Community, Robert Putnam and Lewis Feldstein state "the replacement of local shops by chain stores and single use zoning that puts housing, workplaces, and retail establishments in different areas has eliminated the corner drugstores and the coffee shops where people met one another and found out about the neighborhood."

Some local business owners have been in your neighborhood for years and know a lot about the area. Consider the story of Frank [? cattofumo ?]. When he was in the fourth grade, Frank started learning from his father how to make and repair shoes. After serving in World War II, Frank returned to open his shop, F&C Shoe Re-Builders, where it still stands today in Brooklyn, New York.

Now 91, Frank still works five days a week and uses an old Singer Sewing machine to repair shoes. Walking into his shop is like going back in time where you'll see a cash register from the 1940s, complete with metal keys and a bell that rings when the cash drawer opens. When you support a business owner like Frank, you help enhance the character and uniqueness of the neighborhood in ways a chain shoe store in a strip mall never will. Thank you.

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