Shop locally for Christmas gifts

By Bob Arnold

Stop before you get in your car and drive off to buy your Christmas gifts!  Check out Wesson first. 

It’s convenient, no-hassle shopping that saves you gas money to travel out of town and spares you the stress of competing with crowds to find the gifts you want and stand in long lines to pay for them.  And then there are the gifts, too. Whether its local arts and crafts, collectibles, something different to use, wear or eat and drink, Wesson is often the place to find what is unavailable or not easily found elsewhere.

Shopping Wesson also supports the community.  Research reports show that for every dollar spent at a local business, 3.5 dollars are re-circulated into the local economy, which creates more local jobs.  Local businesses are the backbone of a community. 

When you shop locally, you get to know the people behind the business and you enjoy a connection you would not otherwise have.  Local businesses also buy locally themselves. They hire architects, designers, cabinet shops, sign makers and contractors for construction.  They use local accountants, insurance brokers, computer consultants, attorneys, advertising agencies help run it. 

Local businesses give communities their flavor.  The combined presence many local businesses makes it different from every other city or town in the world.  By supporting those businesses, you help preserve the uniqueness Wesson.  Local businesses define our sense of place, and their survival depends on our patronage. 

Mill Town Salon & Spa Mill Town Mall

Mill Town Mall’s Melissa Meredith, who serves out-of-town visitors, says locals take for granted what they think is “a surprise discovery they have stumbled on in Wesson stores and restaurants.” 

Merdith’s two-story vendors mall on the east side of Highway 51 between Factory and Spring Streets, in fact, is a good place to start your Wesson Christmas shopping experience.  With more than 70 vendors housed there, you can find nearly everything – and more – in display areas for friends and relatives on your gift list.  Glassware.  Books and CDS.  Jewelry. Toys.  Decorative accessories.  Dishware and cooking ware.  Pottery.  Furniture.  Clothing.  Crafts and leather goods.  Old and new.

C&L Treasures

Across the street, shoppers can find another rich variety of gift possibilities at C&L Treasures, which offers fleas, arts and crafts, boutique items and other products of home-operated businesses around town and donors who want to support the assistance the unique retailer provides through Life View Ministries for child sex trafficking victims.  The store front of Life View Ministries, a not-for-profit started by Wesson Mayor Alton Shaw and his wife Christy, who turned an outdoor market with her mother, Linda, into C&L, has some 50 vendors and donors.   

“Five years ago, our yard sales started evolving into a store when we moved into a former salon located behind our current location,” Shaw relates.  “We grew as donors started giving us items to resell; and at our store, we are now also selling items made by home-based businesses in the community -- many of them stay-at-home moms.  Our profits go to one home for child sex trafficking victims, and we hope our work can support other places where they can not only find a safe place, but get help in ongoing recovery.”

For Christmas shoppers, Shaw suggests cups, candles, outfits, selfcare items, jewelry, musical instruments, jams and jellies.

Wesson Ace Hardware

Wesson Ace Hardware is south across Spring Street, facing Highway 51.  Among a wide array of hardware items, you can find a variety of special gifts for Christmas:  Stanley cups.  Winter hats and gloves.  Case knives.  Milwaukee and Stihl tools.  Seasonings.  Patio and yard tools.  Grills.  For your decorations, there are Christmas lights.  For the people on your gift list who enjoy browsing extensive hardware store inventories, you can purchase gift cards in amounts up to $500.

Busy B's

Back across the street on the east side of Highway and Factory Street, Vera Boyles has unique combination of a retail store with clothing for infants, children and ladies -- Busy B's – and salon    service – Salon 51.  Busy B’s is opening a baby boutique this Christmas season and continues feature a wide array of clothing for infants and toddlers -- dresses, play suits, jumpers and gowns -- and juniors -- pageant and prom dresses. 

Salon 51 offers gift certificates for her salon services and hair care products, which make good stocking stuffers.  Next C&L Treasures on the corner of Spring Street, Mill Town Salon and Spa will soon provide nail services and massages for customers, and is offering Christmas gift certificates for them as well as for hair care.  Special Christmas gift packages with hair care and styling products are also available.   

Don’t forget Shop 'n Wash when you’re shopping Wesson for Christmas gifts.  The convenience grocery store, pizza and fast food take-out, laundry and gasoline station beside the railroad tracks at the end of Main Street on the north side of town offers stocking suffers that will be appreciated by those on your Christmas gift list: gift certificates for pizza and quick meals, Marathon gas cards.  

Dollar General Manager Darla Harrison

More traditional shopping venues are Dollar General on Spring Street and Family Dollar on Highway 51 next to Wesson Baptist Church.

At Dollar General, new manager Darla Harrison is using the Christmas season as an opportunity to improve the appeal of the store both at point of sale with displays and promotions.  Christmas shoppers can go to the store’s web site to learn about special deals and get special digital coupons.  In the store, special Christmas displays highlight men’s and women’s cosmetics, electronics, such as cell phones and accessories, toys and games for kids activities, candles and mugs.  Fuzzy blankets promise to be a popular item this Christmas season.

Walk into Family Dollar, and the first thing you see is a display with an array of possible gifts for kids.  Varied license character toys will especially popular with kids this Christmas season, Family Dollar believes.  The store is offering an assortment of Christmas décor, wrapping paper, and baked goods for holiday parties.  Throughout the store you can find stocking stuffers.  Throw blankets, robes and slippers are also good gifts.

Further north on Highway 51 going out of town is the expansive Steel Outdoors metal fabricating plant that will customize products for folk on your Christmas.  They don’t make inexpensive gifts, but if your budgets permits spending up to $1,000 on deer feeders or deer blinds, you may want to check it out.  You can also visit its web site at www.steeloutdoors.com.  The company promotes its products as “made by hunters for hunters,” and also will customize metal products like fire pits, cookers and decorative metal items for inside and outside homes.

That's just for starters -- some of the more visible Christmas shopping stops in town.  If you ask around, you may find a home-based artisan or craftsperson with interesting gifts.   You can even find your Christmas tree a few miles out of town, where Gary Keller grows them and will cut down your choice on his ten-acre property on Highway 51 in Beauregard.

While you’re at it., include lunch or dinner in your Christmas shopping adventure in Wesson.  There’s the 51 Diner and the Firehouse BBQ on Church Street.  At Copiah Nutrition just around the corner from Firehouse BBQ, you can get an energy boost for continued Christmas shopping, and buy a gift card for someone who will appreciate its healthy meal replacement shakes, energy teas, pre and post workout drinks and high protein snacks.

Shop Wesson this Christmas season!