Good morning all. Natchez Downtown Development would like to encourage everyone to do all of their shopping locally this year. As you all know, times are tough, and they will probably get tougher. So I am asking for your help this year, and letting you know how shopping locally will benefit you directly and indirectly.

Directly, all you have to do is pick up the phone and call any number of downtown shops, tell them how much you want to spend, the gender of the person you want the gift for, give them an idea of what they might like and voila! You can pick up a pre-wrapped gift.  I have done this time and time again and never been disappointed! Personal shopping is what they do for a living, and they know their stuff!

So don’t go online. Shop locally but still enjoy the convenience.

Indirectly, when our local businesses flourish, so do we. What would we do if the local businesses closed their doors? Please help our local economy, and reap the benefits as you would online. They’ll gift wrap your purchases for you, usually free of charge.

You can pay by credit card and save on the shipping costs you’d pay online. You just have to go pick it up, or if you want it shipped out of town of course they can take care of that, too.

And at most locations you can even give them your credit card information over the phone, tell them when you expect to come by to pick up your purchase, and call them when you’re driving up and they’ll run it out to you. Now, if that doesn’t beat online shopping, what does?

Every day I feature a different business that’s a member of Downtown Development, and I send out a daily e-mail regarding what they have to offer this holiday season. If you would like to receive these e-mails, contact me at downtown@natchez.org.

Please let’s make sure that we defy the odds — as we always do — in these tough economic times by not having businesses shut down like the rest of the country.

And by keeping your dollars local, our businesses will grow, not close. Let’s show the rest of the country what it means to be southern, to be loyal, and support one another. I recently read a story in this newspaper about how a study reveals something we all already knew — Mississippi is the most “giving” state in the country.

Let’s prove it’s true! This is the season of giving, so please give a little locally. And believe me, when you do we’ll all receive so much more back!

Carrie Lambert is the director of the Natchez Downtown Development Association.