Business and Community Impressions: My friend Mary, who owns The Kitchen Sync, had to leave town unexpectedly on December 17th and would not be back until well after the Christmas rush. Even though I have never worked retail before, and certainly not during the busiest two weeks of the whole darn year, I volunteered to work in her absence. All I can say is "yikes"! I have a whole new level of respect for people who work behind a cash register. It was a terrific experience in many ways. I learned a lot about our downtown market area, and especially the loyalty of our local buyers. Overall, locally-owned businesses in the downtown core did well this holiday season. Some experienced record sales. Also, I was tickled at the number of buyers who shop the downtown to support our community merchants. On many, many occasions, I had shoppers tell me that they shop downtown first, and only hit the malls and big-box stores when they are unable to find what they want on the Ave. Now that’s pretty cool, isn't it?