Something good we can hope for after virus passes

With all the bans on traveling and guidelines to stay at home, one of the common activities we have been able to continue here is shopping for groceries and other needed items. For most other businesses that haven’t been able to keep their doors open, customers are still being served with curbside or home deliveries.
    While some items may have to be ordered online right now, it is my hope that once this coronavirus passes, we’ll remember the efforts our local business owners took to keep their shelves filled, food prepared and medicines available during this ordeal.
    The other day, I had stopped at Adams Drug Store to pick up some prescriptions and was ready to call their number to tell employees I was outside and would meet them at the door. However, before I even got the number dialed, Amber Yaw was already at my car window with my prescriptions.
    Actually, that’s happened twice for me at the drugstore.
    It’s such efforts of service (and there are many other examples in Imperial) which we all need to remember once this passes.
    I often think back to the Minnesota hometown where my husband was raised. It was a town of a few hundred when we met, but has lost population. And, it began losing population when it started losing its businesses.
    My mother-in-law used to tell a shop-at-home story I often think about. She was shopping in the one grocery store they had in their small town a few minutes before closing, when an out-of-breath fellow resident burst into the store saying, “I’m so glad you’re still open. I forgot to buy milk in Morris (a larger, nearby city) when I was there getting groceries.” She picked up her gallon of milk and left.
    A few years later, the one grocery store in town closed. Now, everyone there has to drive the 25-30 miles to shop for groceries.
    When you decide to make that trip to Walmart to do your grocery shopping or to order from them or other big box stores online for items you can easily get here, stop a minute and remember that story from Minnesota.
    The people who own businesses here are our neighbors. Remember who you go to when you want to fundraise for something important to you—the many county fair activities, after-prom at the school, senior scholarships, Smokin’ on Broadway, to name just a few.
    The city just approved a local business gift certificate program, in which you can go online and order gift certificates now for purchases. That’s an easy way to support our businesses now, and you can use the gift certificates next week or down the road. Give them as gifts for birthdays, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
    Hopefully, one positive result after the pandemic will be realized here in Imperial— strong support for our local businesses who were there when we needed them more than usual.