Make the ‘real' economic transaction local

To the editor: As sad as I am about the closing of The Bookstore - and that is very sad, indeed - I am also alarmed about what this loss implies for our downtown. To lose the food market, the hardware store and the bookstore in such a short time suggests a trend we should take seriously. Warwick is not a movie set, put here for our pleasure in its beauty and charm. It’s our community - and if we abandon it, by car or Internet, for our “real” economic transactions, it won’t be charming for long. The franchises will happily snap it up. Then not only will our community look like every other suburb in the sprawl we all dread, but our dollars will leave the hometown we love for the headquarters of some remote corporation. Please, let’s make this loss our reality check: shop locally, dine locally, do business locally whenever you can. Kay Michelfeld Warwick