PRESIDENT'S LETTER

Shop Local this Holiday Season! The most prosperous and inviting communities across our great land are those with many small locally owned businesses that give their communities a distinct character and flare. Sound like Flagstaff? For many years, the Greater Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce has supported and promoted Live, Love and Shop Local because we know that the lifeblood of our small business community relies on a high volume of consumers taking advantage of the great products they provide. If you're like me, you like choices, and small businesses offer unique and diverse items that cannot be found in chain stores. Shoppers don't have to leave Flagstaff to find top notch retailers, great deals and exceptional customer service. When we buy local, we are helping retailers that provide a valuable tax base for the government along with much needed jobs for local residents. In addition to providing a tax base for city services like street repairs, fire protection and trash collection, small businesses provide Julie Pastrick a tremendous amount of support to non-profits, too, so they can President + CEO provide for those less fortunate. It's obvious that everything we're looking for cannot always be found in Flagstaff, but before you go out of town or buy online, look around and shop in your hometown first. There's great value shopping here in your backyard. Buy Flagstaff first so your money stays local. Now more than ever, as many businesses are reopening and returning strong after temporary closures to slow the spread of COVID-19, businesses need to feel confident that they can make it and keep their doors open with a larger consumer base, not a smaller one. Keeping your dollars local will add to the prosperity of our community and the quality of life which we all enjoy. If you were to go to a community outside of northern Arizona and do your shopping, you· are elevating their economy. The Chamber asks you to stay put and shop here to elevate our local economy. Lots of great local businesses cater to outdoor recreation gear, culinary delights, boutique style clothing and jewelry, beer and wine, river running, snowboarding, skiing and more . Name a retail need, and we likely have a retail outlet in Flagstaff with those items. So we encourage everyone to LIVE LOCAL-LOVE LOCAL-SHOP LOCAL! Why? Our Greater Flagstaff Chamber motto states it the best: Because a healthy business climate and a thriving community are inseparable. Local businesses are relying on you to play your part in supporting our economy. Many great local businesses are at your fingertips right here in this issue! During the holidays there’s nothing like the Grand Canyon Railway's Polar Express. Every year, since my grown children were little, we’d huddle together over Christmas and I’d read them the Polar Express. Please enjoy a behind the scenes look at the train in this issue. A holiday tradition we’ve loved from the start is the famous pine cone drop shown in this edition. Thanks to the Weatherford Hotel for such an enormous annual gift to the community. Happy Holidays from all of us at the Greater Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce. By now, we’d hoped the virus would be behind us. Since it isn’t, be safe, be healthy, and wear a mask.