It was great to see so many families enjoying themselves at the Gilman Village 19th annual Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday.

Just like they do at Halloween and Christmas, the shopkeepers at Gilman are always cool about opening their doors to the community, not just shoppers, putting on a party and making the village more than just a place for commerce.

You see the same thing along Front Street during the Art Walk in the summer, trick or treating for the kids during Halloween, and events like Fenders on Front Street.

Sure, the general idea of promotions like these is to attract people to the area, but what gatherings like this bring to the community is more than you can calculate in sales.

In recent times, however, the worth of a shopfront or local supplier has been assessed by one thing and one thing only – the price of the product. With the advent of internet shopping, consumers have become experts at where they can get something for $14.53 as opposed to $14.80. Punch in your Paypal numbers, get it shipped in, save a few bucks, great stuff.

Except that local retailers are suffering enormously. And, as a result, so are the communities they support.

In a neighborhood I lived in a few years back there was this great little record store, Beaumont Street Records – the owner’s name was Baden. It was only a little place, he didn’t have a ton of stuff, but whatever he didn’t have he would get in for you if you could wait a week or two. Musicians and music lovers used to hang out there, listening to new tunes, plus the occasional free in-store gig for an up and coming band. Baden even made a go of signing young bands, helped them put out recordings. There were want ads on the walls, and posters of upcoming shows. Joint was cool.

Problem was, the K-Mart a few suburbs over sold CDs for about $1.50 less, and so that’s where a lot of people chose to shop. Not long later, my man went out of business – too many people thinking the $1.50 they saved on a CD was more important than the existence of hubs of community like Beaumont Street. No hang out, no supporter of local music, no grapevine, no community. But you could get cheaper CDs. Do you think K-Mart were interested in talking about how Blonde On Blonde Dylan was better than Street Legal Dylan? Do you think K-Mart ever helped a local band get their first gig? You know the answer to that.

Now, to me that sounds like a bad deal (and I would rather use a much stronger word than ‘bad’), but it is one that more and more shoppers are making everyday. And as a result, box-stores and strip malls are thriving across America while our main streets and villages are dying fast.

The benefits of supporting your locally-owned retailers go beyond this intangible idea of “community.” There is real math and economics in it too. By choosing to spend money at stores owned by people who live in your community, more of your dollars stay in the community, and are circulated in the form of jobs for other locals, better products at local stores, a more vibrant retail and social core… and so the circulation goes. Shopping at an Issaquah-owned store is an investment in Issaquah.

Any savings you make at the massive retailers in the short term are only borrowed against the future – and we have seen it is a future where the town’s character is eroded and replaced with homogenous corporate identities, the ma and pa stores are forced under, and history and culture is swept aside by economy.

What you end up with is a hometown that looks like any other, and where the profit and industry of its citizens is syphoned out to owners and corporations in other states, in other countries. That’s the other end of your so-called “value.”

It may sound like a gloomy-scenario, but you talk to many local business owners and they will tell you we are getting there, fast. It is hard to convince people it is in their best interest to consider shopping somewhere that may well cost them a little more – that’s a hard sell, particularly to a generation that has been raised to believe that the bottom line is the only line.

But the buying local philosophy does require a partnership, between resident and local business – I support you, you support me, we keep the money in the city, and the city grows itself. The shop owners at Gilman Village and Front Street, and many others around the city, understand this, which is why they sponsor sports teams and hold familevents and open their doors to give out chocolate eggs.

But I did wonder, looking at all the happy children at Gilman Village on Saturday, how many of those same families had actually chosen to shop in the village in the past few months? In the past year?

Local businesses can’t do it without you. Next time you are headed to Fred Meyer or Target or QFC, for bicycle or a new CD or a pound of sausages, consider whether there isn’t a locally-owned business you could get it from instead. I promise you, you’ll feel good about your investment in the city.

Otherwise, next Easter or Halloween or Christmas, when you are looking for something fun for your family, well, the local businesses that have done that for you in the past might be all shuttered up. It won’t be the fault of the government, or the banks, but because of local shoppers that look only at the numbers on the receipt, and not the myriad of other things that make your town your home.

For more about what buying local can do for your community, check out what Sustainable Issaquah are up to, at www.sustainableissaquah.ning.com