Here’s a hint if you didn’t get it yet.

There were three people spotted dashing out of The Gap at about noon on Tuesday with piles of clothes in their hands. These folks allegedly took some nice cream-colored T-shirts as well as a hefty stack of blue jeans, which a manager later told police were valued at – get this – $58 each.

Now I’m not advocating this kind of outlandish theft in broad daylight, but at $58 each, I think I would consider jetting from The Gap myself, jeans in hand. The truth is that such a petty crime at such a high risk screams something about Evanston that the city’s Panera Bread-yuppies and Century Theatre do are not understand: Rich people aren’t the only ones who live in Evanston.

For the past year, everything we have heard about at Evanston City Council meetings has had to do with development, development, development. And while there seems to be no cap on the amount of businesses our aldermen are allowing to penetrate the current set up, there also lacks an active concern about the costs that Evanston consumers have to face, especially for those who can’t pay $58 for a pair of jeans.

So here’s some advice for those incoming businesses who may be planning to clean out more wallets in this town: Don’t do it. This city needs affordable retail. It needs a Marshalls, not a Nordstrom; it needs another YMCA, not a high-rate athletics club.

And the big corporations aren’t the only ones at fault. Family-owned companies are charging up a storm, too.

A couple of months ago, I needed my racquetball racquet restrung without having to trek to Skokie. I phoned the only sports store in Evanston I knew of and asked them if they could restring me for $3 less than they usually charge in order to meet a quote given to me by a place in Skokie.

Not only was I met with a flat-out ‘no,’ but the guy on the phone also told me I should go to Skokie if I liked their prices so much. So that’s where I went.

This is not the kind of consumer mishandling this city needs. With one of the highest sales-tax rates in the state of Illinois, low-income families with four or five mouths to feed shouldn’t have to pay $4 for a gallon of milk at Osco Drugs or $58 for a pair of pants at The Gap. Fifty-eight dollars for pants!

The president of the Evanston Small Business Association, Troy Thiel, implores students to “consider” Evanston before heading elsewhere for their shopping. But I ask Thiel, why should I consider Evanston if I can get the same product for 20 percent less elsewhere?

Case-in-point: I went searching for Radiohead’s “The Bends” the other night all over Evanston — Wherehouse Music, Dr. Wax, etc. I couldn’t find it for less than $16.99 anywhere except at the Best Buy in Skokie, where it was selling for $12.99.

Find “The Bends” for that price around here and I’ll be sold. Well, maybe not sold, but I’ll start “considering,” if you will. Oh, and maybe we can arrange to have them sell some affordable pants one of these days, too.