Business comment:

Can you make “Shop-local!” campaigns work for YOU?

That’s a businessperson’s question, and the first step is clear: make your business visible -- in Aylmer’s annual business directory.  Consumers can’t shop with you if they don’t know where you are.

A big part of the Bulletin’s ongoing Shop Local campaign is to encourage shoppers to keep their business and their dollars here in their home town. Aylmer will not exist as a livable, small city unless it has its own economy. Businesses and services pay taxes, provide jobs – including summer jobs for our kids – and keep Aylmer’s entire social infrastructure staffed and funded with donations: figure skating and hockey, gymnastics, baseball, gaming, art classes and exhibitions, musical presentations, sailing and boating and driving and flying groups – plus seniors and school fund-raising drives and campaigns, all these and many more rely on a thriving retail section.  Customers keep a retail sector thriving.

This message is getting across. Retailers and restauranteurs report increased business, and new shops and services keep growing.

The retailers themselves have to step up to the plate, too – by making local shopping as easy and rewarding as possible. Aylmer’s plentiful and nearby parking, low traffic volume, attractive shops and displays, good choice and even better quality – all are essential, but the first step is to let people know who and where you are!

There are also cost-efficient ways to advertise. Reach the expanding Aylmer shoppers – target those on your doorstep! And the Aylmer Business Directory, which the Bulletin produces every year, is the best advertising bargain. It keeps working all year long, as people, especially new residents, keep the Directory and use it continually.

Last week deadline

This is a last week for inclusion. If you haven’t signed up or approved your ad, this is the last week, with the deadline extended to this Friday. Take a minute and call your Bulletin advertising rep – or call the Bulletin: 819-684-4755, and ask for Sophie. She’ll make sure you’re off on your best first step in the New Year.  Make it a good year!