If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.

I’ve heard this has been said about our brains, our muscles, even our skills and talents like playing the piano, or singing.

But it applies to much more than this.

The services and businesses that are important to any community are at risk when we shift from a local economy to an on-line economy.

And once we are fully sucked into that type of purchasing, we are slowly seeing the loss of things that are important to us.

Like the businesses who used to grace our downtown.

We have become a society of shoppers, yet we seem to have trouble realizing that the people who need us most are right here in our own town.

If you haven’t been out talking with our local businesses lately, this is the weekend to do it.

It’s been a long, drawn out winter, with temperatures confusing our bodies, our yards, our wildlife and all our habits.

While it takes a toll on our bodies and our attitudes, the elongated weather also has impacted our business community.

This long stretch of intermittent good and bad weather has not been kind to the retailers who depend on local shoppers. According to some of our local independent retailers, it’s the worst they have seen in 30 years.

And they need us.

Webster City doesn’t just need streets and schools and hospitals. We need our businesses to not just survive, but to thrive. In recent years, they have absorbed many changes; from the Walmarts and superstores; the changes in traffic patterns from moving Highway 20; the major shopping malls in our largest communities, and now the advent of online-shopping through Amazon and a multitude on online distributors.

The impact of this most recent shift shows corporations tearing down their malls and shopping centers. The cost of keeping up the facilities just don’t give even the largest companies enough profit to succeed.

If it is happening to them, think about our local business owners. The ones being asked to fix up their buildings, to pay higher wages, to carry different inventory.

And they are trying, but the reality is that if we don’t get some shifting in our spending habits, our business owners, even our very best and most stable might just give up.

No one should want this.

We need each other. We need their products, we need their services, we need their employment, we need them to take care of their buildings, we need them to help support our tax base, which takes care of our schools, our hospital, our streets and police protection.

Without them, there would be little left. If we think our taxes are high now, that our electrical and water bills are outrageous, think what happens when the business community is no longer in the mix.

We are truly all linked together, whether we want to be or not. A product might be a little cheaper in a metro business, but that metro business isn’t going to help pave the roads in Webster City.

That metro business owner isn’t going to go to the high school play, or support a fundraiser for a non-profit in our community.

There are exciting things happening in Webster City, but we all need to get out of our coccoons and silos, hit the streets and visit with our neighbors who are working hard to provide items we need and want.

Our businesses need you.

Saturday is the Spring Stroll in downtown Webster City.

Take a look at what great things our stores are providing for us.

There are special sales.

There are businesses partnering with other businesses.

There are lots of new products, new colors and beautiful materials.

There are scratch-off discount tickets and puzzle pieces to collect.

There are prizes and surprises throughout the downtown area.

Pop-up businesses are waiting to be discovered inside store fronts.

New business owners you haven’t met yet.

There are yummy things to eat and drink.

And there are people who are truly your friends and neighbors who will provide the type of customer service, strangers don’t offer.

The Webster City Area Chamber of Commerce is working to provide events and activities that will make shopping in downtown Webster City a wonderful event.

Let’s make it the best kick off to spring ever.

Kolleen Taylor is the Community Editor for the Daily Freeman-Journal.