Have an independently owned town center business you'd like us to include in our list? Here's what we're looking for:

• The business has to be independently owned (obviously). It can be part of a small regional chain of up to three outlets - but that's the limit.

• It has to be located in a historic, older or traditional downtown or neighborhood commercial district. No shopping malls or strip shopping centers. No freestanding buildings on the edge of town or in the middle of a cornfield.

• It has to offer online shopping, not just information about its products or services. Someone has to be able to buy something directly from the website.

• It has to be a retail site. We love independent theatres, hotels, and restaurants, too - but this directory is for tangible stuff that people anywhere can buy online and have shipped to them.

• It can't offer anything pornographic or illegal, or anything we perceive to be pornographic or illegal.


The list is currently limited to 250 businesses. If there are more than 250 businesses that would like to be listed, we get to choose which ones to include and which ones to bump from the list. We reserve the right to be completely arbitrary about this (this IS a free service, after all) - but, in general, we're inclined to give precedence to businesses that:

• are located in historic buildings (see Tiny Trapeze Confections and Golden Raintree Books)

• have a strong sense of personality (see Abizak's), that teach something interesting about what they sell (see Shorty's Ca'boy Hattery), that sell something you just don't see every day (see Wm. Rees Instruments), or that is doing something innovative.

• are located in officially designated National Main Street Communities

• include a link to our website

Once a business is listed, we reserve the right to remove any business from the list if it no longer meets our criteria, or if we get a bunch of complaints that the business is providing poor service, or if its link isn't working, or if we have to limit the number of businesses listed.

If you have a business you'd like to recommend, please email us. We'll need the business's website address, a description of the business and why you think we should include it, and a small (like, under 50MB) photo of it.