Getting ready for holiday get together cookouts last week, I was once again reminded of how people who work but don’t live here feel about the hands that feed them.

My list of items that I needed took me from store to store.

From Jamaica Avenue, down to Laurelton and Cambria Heights and back over to Queens Village. I picked up this and that but I could clearly see price differences from store to store.

Remarkably it seemed that some of the more staple foods were more expensive in the poorer neighborhoods.

I also noticed there seemed to be less access to dietetic, low -fat, and alternative foods and products.

Aisles were tighter, conditions dirtier, and the service nastier.

I found everything that I needed but couldn’t help wondering about the all the whining and crying some of the owners of these same stores did and do when one of the large chains announced they were building one of their superstores in Southeast Queens.

Stores that sometimes create traffic problems and noise also bring with them a standard of quality and they can sell items for less because of their ability to buy more.

No, they are generally not owned by people from our community, but for the most part neither are the supermarkets and other businesses that take our dollars for granted.

Not all the neighborhood grocery stores and bodegas in Southeast Queens participate in price gouging, but more than enough do for my taste.

What should the acceptable surcharge to us for coming to our community and doing business here? Should we somehow feel honored that these entrepreneurs have chosen us as their customers?

And because they were so gracious enough to probably spend less for their property or rent south of Hillside Avenue, should we feel obligated to subsidize them even further by paying 5, 10 or 15 percent more to keep them here?

From shopping in a variety of these stores I have a good idea who the main perpetrators are, but I won’t name them here.

But I think you may know who the "highwaymen" are as well.

They believe that we may not be sophisticated enough to know that we may pay $5 for a 15-ounce box of cereal when other communities pay $4 or even $3 for the same box. They imagine we may not travel to pay less per pound for our meat and fish.

They may imagine we are so used to the dirt and bad attitudes that we will not notice the same in their establishments.

Consider letting them know that this is not the case by not buying from a place that you think may be ripping you off.

It may be only a few dollars but that money is yours and you have control over it, not them.

If they are abusing enough people who also exercise control over their money and where they spend it, the message will be clear over time.

The other side of that equation is to reward those who have been here and have treated us fairly.

Many businesses are struggling because now there is no sense of economic loyalty.

Part of that is created by the increased transience of new arrivals and departures in Southeast Queens, but the other part happens when we simply forget who our retail friends are.

I still buy my suits from the same guy on Jamaica Avenue, who has been putting suits on me since I was about nine or 10 years old.

So the clothes you see on my back on TV are not from some Madison Avenue haberdashery, where the salesman doesn’t know or care who I am, but from Alan and Steve who have watched me grow up from a boy to a man.

In my opinion, part of building the economic independence we have been chasing for years is to build relationships with the people who do business with us and to sever those relationships if they are abusive.

As you have heard me say before, we make a lot of money here.

Our per capita income is one of the highest in the country among African-Americans.