Letters, letters, letters

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To the Editor:

I have no idea whether the self-employed small business person from Camp Sherman, who resents being told he's "fleecing" tourists, is really ripping them off, because as a local resident I've probably never been in his store (John Tice, Letters to the Editor, The Nugget, September 1).

I can tell him, however, that one reason his business seems like part of a ghost town in the winter is that he probably hasn't made much effort to attract the approximately 9,000 permanent residents of the Sisters area to his business.

That's nearly the population of Bend 20 years ago.

A considerable part of that wintertime stream of cars passing through Sisters without stopping is locals on their way to spend money in Bend and Redmond.

The Sisters small businesses who recognize this market and adjust prices and inventory to attract local, year-round residents to their enterprises are doing just fine.

The small businessperson who understands that year-round sales depend on local people coming to them with year-round needs will prosper; the rest will stand behind their cash registers and watch the traffic go by.

Barney Howard

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