Picture an idyllic downtown

One of the times my parents came to visit us, we went to downtown Mill Valley for lunch. It was one of those spectacular Northern California days with a clear blue sky and temps in the mid-70s. We were walking through the Depot Square when my dad turned to me and said, "you live in paradise."

If you picture your ideal downtown, I bet it doesn't have a Walmart or a Target. It has unique shops and restaurants. And, hopefully, it doesn't have a lot of "for rent" and closed signs.

As we approach election day [I can't wait for it to be over] and the holidays, I'm going to ask that you not only vote in the elections, but vote with your dollars too. The Washington Post's loss of 250,000 subscribers is a clear example of people voting with their pocketbooks. 

No matter your political persuasion, if each one of us could shift some of our annual spending away from Amazon (and other mass merchants) and shop locally first, we'd continue to have vibrant and charming downtowns.

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Yours in getting out the vote,

José, the ShopLocally dude

P.S. Instead of a standard discount code, let's do this: Share a picture of your "proof" of voting on Instagram and tag us - @RealShopLocally - and we'll send you a code for 12% off all of your purchases on our site, through the end of the year! Just take a picture of you and your "I Voted" sticker, or of the outside of your completed mail-in ballot and tag us in a story or post. (Must tag us by 11:59 PM November 6, 2024.)