Editor, Gazette-Journal:

You can shop locally and have a very merry festive Christmas. You can purchase your Christmas trees, wreaths, garlands and lights at M&M and say hello to friends and employees you know.

You can stop by Moughons for batteries, bird seed, decorative flags, and even cinnamon rolls and Billy’s Bees honey. Those helpful people even know your name.

Even get non-prescription medicine (with advice) and yes, your shots from the Mathews Pharmacy, and visit with longtime friends and hardly ever stand in line. Recently a gentleman said to me, “This is why I moved to Mathews.”

I love personally banking at the old/new Chesapeake Bank. As the saying goes, where everybody knows your name. Even the friendly employees wear name tags, so we can know their names.

Without Dollar General, how can be decorate, give cards and parade candy, and last-minute pickups? Some very helpful people work there. A young man even went through newly-arrived stock to find a neede...