For more than fifty years, I’ve lived in Durand, Illinois. I try to buy what I can in my hometown. The merchants are an asset and the sales taxes go toward keeping the water and sewer running, the streets paved and the police on duty. From time to time, I have to go elsewhere for things such as Christmas shopping.
Our village is centrally located. Half-an-hour of driving in various directions takes me to four different cities and several small towns in between. Whether I’m looking for clothes, hardware or something else that isn’t available here, I have a long list of establishments in Rockford or Freeport, Illinois, and across the state line in Beloit or Monroe, Wisconsin. Sometimes, I see this as a good thing–others a curse.
Often, I can’t group my errands. I can find a chain store such as Walgreen’s on a corner in most towns and it doesn’t matter which one I patronize, but smaller businesses that I’ve developed a personal relationship with through the years are in different locations. Yesterday, I needed to visit two places in opposite directions–the Winnebago County Clerk’s office in Rockford to obtain a copy of a legal document and Pinnow’s Home Town Pharmacy in Brodhead to pick up a prescription renewal.
Since becoming a writer, I’ve taken advantage of a couple larger cities within easy driving distance. An hour of travelling mostly backroads takes me to Madison where I’ve attended workshops at the Continuing Education Department of the University of Wisconsin. For more than thirty years, I’ve belonged to the Illinois Woman’s Press Association that meets in Chicago. The toll road makes the two-hour drive to the Windy City fly by.
Where do you do business?