High energy costs, including for gasoline and diesel fuel, are starting to play a large role in this country’s economic downturn.

With gasoline prices edging toward $3.50 in the Hutchinson area, and diesel well over $4 per gallon, shoppers are shuffling their budgets. More and more of their resources are being diverted to the gas pump. How can a retailer draw them in?

One way is to emphasize the cost-saving of shopping local, said David Nelson, a University of Minnesota regional extension educator. Nelson is known to many Hutchinson because of two seminars he presented in October 2006 that examined the strengths and weaknesses of Hutchinson’s retail market.

A local shopping trip might only cost a dollar or two for fuel. An out-of-town round trip of 100 miles might cost $15 or more. That may eat up any price benefit a consumer might get shopping out-of-town. Retailers need to let customers know that.

“People don’t usually think of that before they head out the door from Hutchinson to drive to Eden Prairie,” Nelson said last week from his office in Mankato. “You might as well throw $15 out the window.”

Read more about how local retailers can weather the recession by reading INC. — Your Monthly Business Journal on pages 6A and 7A for the Leader’s April 29 print edition.

(Terry Davis is a Hutchinson Leader staff writer. E-mail him at davis@hutchinsonleader.com.)