Local retailers are confident with good reason

Shopping is in full swing, trees are going up, and soon they will be guarding colorfully decorated presents. Schools and churches are putting the finishing touches on their Christmas productions, and the biggest holiday of the year will be here in just 25 days.

A large fraction of McCook was in Lincoln for the championship football game, and we hope an even greater majority turns out for Sunday's rally honoring the McCook High School Bison football team.

Despite annual pleas to shop at home, many couldn't resist the opportunity to take in some big-city shopping.

But just as many realize just how special Christmas-buying opportunities are right here at home. "I'm very pleased with today," Mike Ford of Knowlen & Yates said of Friday's shopping turnout. "We have had a store full of customers non-stop all day long."

"We're hearing a lot of negative retail news on the national level, but I've been most pleased with the shopping activity here at home," Ford said.

Ford's kitchen store is only one of the inviting shopping opportunities "on the bricks" along Norris Avenue and elsewhere in McCook and the region.

The Christmas season is a wonderful excuse to get out and rub elbows with our friends and neighbors in local stores. It's also a good time to see just how creative, enterprising and competitive our local business people can be. Craft shows Saturday and next week at Memorial Auditorium are another indication of the talent that exists in the Golden Plains.

"I'm confident we will have a successful holiday season," Ford said, despite national news to the contrary.

Hit "the bricks" or visit your other local retailers and you'll see just what he is talking about.