99 Years Ago
The October 1, 1925 Colorado Transcript urged its readers to Read the Ads in this Paper and save yourself money by trading at home.
For the first half of the 20th Century, the Colorado Transcript ran a non-stop Buy Local campaign. From the newspaper's earliest days (in 1866), they were encouraging Golden residents to patronize their hometown businesses.
When the railroad came to Golden (1870), the Transcript mentioned that Golden businesses would now be able to acquire goods as cheaply as Denver merchants could, and so, would offer comparable prices...so BUY LOCAL! When Montgomery Ward became distributing its mail order catalogs (1872), the message was the same--don't take a chance on some untested goods sold by some unknown vendor. Buy from your friends and neighbors, right here in Golden...BUY LOCAL!
You may remember the Transcript message that I reprint every December:
Golden merchants have an excellent line of Christmas goods and there is no use in journeying to Denver to buy your Christmas goods. Besides, look at the danger of getting murdered, held up, run over or contracting small pox. Buy at home, help your home town and be safe.
Colorado Transcript, December 22, 1921
The campaign was a symbiotic relationship, in that the local businesses were reliable, enthusiastic advertisers. Thriving local businesses made for a thriving local newspaper, which in turn did its best to keep those businesses thriving...BUY LOCAL!
