SHOPPING LOCALLY ! ! !

[TJMack]

~~~~> RAVE <~~~~

Just went to the Petaluma Outlet Mall and bought items at Toys R Us Express, Carters, OshKosh, Tuesday Morning, Vitamin World and Kitchen Collection. We found everything we were looking for!

The Food Court is closed, but DaVinci Coffee sells not only coffee, but soups, sandwiches, fruit and desserts.

Other places we have done local holiday shopping----> Raleys! Trader Joes! Papyrus! K-Mart! Kohls! Dollar Tree! Papyrus!

Yay, all done

[PennyMoney]

Best Santa at Raley's yesterday! Thanks for being so good with kids and the nice free photos. Excellent! And great displays all over the store with many gifty items.

We like to buy practical gifts......coffee, tea, cheese & crackers, wine, gourmet soup mixes, olives, nuts, etc.

[Wickersham]

I like your sentiments. Shopping at the Outlet Mall, Raleys etc does keep tax dollars in town, but how about shopping TRULY LOCALLY: locally-owned businesses! Copperfields Books, Heebe Jeebe, Gallery One, AWOL (Art Without Labels). Park the car and stroll around downtown, you'll find plenty! Enjoy a cup of great coffee at Bus Stop or grab lunch at Zazzle. Love this town.

[TLM2012]

SO EXCITED !! to see the walls of TARGET going up!! Next year shopping here in Petaluma!!! I do as much shopping as I can locally but somethings you have to visit a big box for. My teenagers need jobs, and we wont have to waste gas and money traveling to Novato or RP.
Petaluma hasn't been a small town for a long time.
More houses = more people !!! its 2012 almost 2013 Change is good!! JOBS and Tax Dollars !!! its a GOOD THING This may be totally random but I am EXCITED !!! ps.. the traffic in this town sucks and has for years!!! Don't blame it on the Big Box !!!

[SaveOurCity]

So all of these LOCAL places only sell locally made products??? I always try to buy locally made or grown products where possible...that is the real LOCAL shopping way!

[JEH]

For the ultimate re-gifting/one of a kind items . . . . and sometimes you can find Made in America items . . . try The Thrifty Hippy (Petaluma Blvd) or Alphabet Soup (Western Ave)

[Homegrown petaluman]

Shop Local???
Shopping local or not, What is important is GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE..If a LOCAL business has good customer service they WILL get business no matter what "big box" store comes to town. Same goes for the "Big Box store" lousy service and they will fail.
A prime example....
Big 5 had pool ques on sale. Went there on Saturday and they were all out. I was told to come back on Tuesday. Came back on Tuesday and they said they did not get any in yet. I went home and checked on line and they had them IN STOCK at the big 5 in the R. P store. I went there and bought it.
Buy local Question....
Why didn't the sales person ask me if I wanted them to contact the R.P store and have it delivered to the Petaluma store? or why not at least call the R.P store and see if they had it in stock so they could hold it for me.
I will NOT buy local just to be held hostage locally. Some (not all) but some "local stores" act like they are doing me a favor just by existing. I will buy local (and even not mind paying a little more) if the customer service is good.