Has anyone else noticed the empty shelves at some of our retail stores?

We are losing our businesses without us even knowing that they are in trouble. This bothers me, and should bother every citizen of Staples. We are becoming a ghost town, while sitting here pretty complacent with what’s going on around us.

I know that many of us have become “anti-Staples” and have done a great deal of complaining about our town, but if we put all of that energy into “fixing” what each of us individually thinks needs fixing, we could make Staples be what we envision for the home town of our dreams. If we all rallied together for this common purpose we could turn our town into a prospering, thriving community that we could all be proud of.

I for one would like to know what others would like to see in our town. I know what I would like, and I’m betting that a lot of us have the same ideas. Maybe as one, nothing can happen, but we’ve all heard the expression that there is “power in numbers”. Please let me know what you think we need, and then let’s figure out how to make it happen.

In the meantime we need to all work together to keep what little bit we have left. I don’t know if it’s possible to keep a store going out of business. But we do have to remember we “vote” on our towns survival with every purchase we make. The saying “shop local” doesn’t really tell the whole story. The truth is that we are all given the opportunity to determine the fate of our hometown every single day and most of us don’t. We simply need to make what purchases we can right here in Staples and then we need to unite and make the other changes that need to be made.

Can we afford to lose one more business, one more home to foreclosure, one more local job, one more family? I don’t think so.

If you agree, and want to try to turn things around, give me a call at 218-894-0123 or e-mail at: ccolseno123@ charter.net.
Chris Colsen
Staples, Minn.