A letter in last week’s Leader edition referenced the high price of goods and service in Port Townsend. While I, too, have experienced such sticker shocks, I have also been pleasantly surprised the other way at times.

A couple weeks ago, my printer died. My first instinct was to visit Costco. But then I thought it wise to check what was available locally. I was pleasantly surprised to find a printer on the shelf at PT Computer for $100. And when I had trouble installing it on our Wi-Fi system, Rob made a house call at a reasonable price.

My son, who lives in Vermont, gave me some Vermont-made Darn Tough socks for Christmas. I decided to buy some more and visited the Darn Tough website. Then I thought maybe I could order them through Quimper Mercantile.

Lo and behold, they have several racks of Darn Tough socks at [manufacturer’s suggested retail price] with no shipping charges, plus I get 5 percent off because I am a stockholder.

When I find the price of gas in Port Townsend is high, I visit the QFC station in Port Hadlock, which always has good prices. I could cite some other examples both ways.

But the point is that I always try to look local before going online or to the big-box stores. A dollar spent locally keeps turning in the community.

And our merchants are generous when asked to support community fundraisers. I really appreciate that.

EARLL MURMAN

Port Townsend