Walk the Walk - Buy Local!

[Le Taz Hot]

We at DU sit here, day after day, bitching and moaning about the big box stores. They're corporate, they're impersonal, they're DESIGNED to put local mom-and-pops out of business, they take away from community, etc. While all that is most certainly true, isn't it time we walk the walk and start buying locally?

My best friend and I were talking about that this morning and we have decided we're going to start seeking out locally-owned businesses (what's left of them) and regularly shop in as many as we can. Just off the top of my head:

-There is a locally owned mom-and-pop grocery store, within walking distance of my house, that sells mostly foods for Middle-eastern and Mediterranean cooking (i.e., pita bread, Tahini, grape leaves, and so on). In that I LOVE those types of foods (VERY healthy eating), there's no reason I cannot get many of my cooking ingredients there. I can get my fresh fruits/veggies from the farmers markets. Between just those two venues (and my summer garden), I should rarely have to visit one of the big box grocery stores.

-One of my husband's Christmas gifts were moccasins I purchased from a local Native American store that has been around for probably 50 years.

-On the rare occasion we eat out, we seek out locally-owned restaurants only.

I think that if we all started actively looking around our own communities, we would find there are still a lot of locally-owned businesses that could use our patronage. Let's start creating jobs LOCALLY. Let's make sure most of the revenue STAYS on our communities. The only way we're going to survive the tsunami that is about to drown us all in poverty, is with a dedication to community-based commerce and helping one another.

All ideas are welcome.

[Le Taz Hot]

1. Kick.

I'll kick this once before it goes off into obscurity. (sigh)

(Thanks for the 2 recs.)

[tabbycat31]

2. I do buy local when I can

however in terms of food, this is a very hard time to do it. Once May/June rolls along, most of the produce I will eat will be local (or at least have the "Jersey Fresh" logo on them).

I also support Mom and Pops, and flea markets.

[Le Taz Hot]

3. I'm not sure how your area is set up for

farmer's markets but we have year-round ones here. Granted, there aren't as many sellers as in the Spring/Summer/Fall but there are a few die-hards selling winter crops. I did have to learn how what to do with Swiss chard, kale, turnips, & parsnips, but other winter veggies are more common such as broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts. (I found that, if you cook cauliflower until it is soft, you can put it in a food process with a little butter, cream, salt & pepper, and puree, it makes a healthy mock mashed "potato.")

I, too, love flea markets, yard sales, estates sales and, my favorite, thift stores. :hi:

[tabbycat31]

17. I havent seen any winter farmers markets

of course I live in a community that's a tourist trap too and largely abandoned in the winter. I do have herbs in pots growing in my bathroom and thriving (they love the humidity from the shower).

That cauliflower sounds good. I hated cauliflower as a kid, and really havent tried it since but it might be worth a shot.

I can't wait for flea markets to start up again. I sell stuff at them and without a job it's my source of income.

[asdjrocky]

4. I could not agree more.

For me these days, it's all about my community. I came back to my family home about a year ago to fix it up and decide what I'm going to do. After being gone for more 15 years I was kind of shocked to see what has happened to the neighborhood. Empty houses, tagging, people out of work, it's all here. Did I mention I live in the number one foreclosure city in the state of Ca?

So there's a little store down the street owned by Harry. He takes care of the whole neighborhood, giving credit to those that need it and getting paid back by fewer than all. There's a little produce store around the corner owned by Louie, a terrific guy who gives back with help from the Senior Gleaners. Pruitt and his adult son own a new and used furniture store next to Harry's' place and they're doing as good as anyone, which isn't saying much. A small Mexican bakery and meat shop is also opening up in Harry's' store and everyone is trying to support each other. When Thanksgiving came and we needed a new roasting pan, we went local and they fell all over themselves thanking us for coming to them.

I'm more lucky than most with the house paid for I do this and that to get by, and for the most part I'm making it. I've never known times this tough and I know people right in my neighborhood who are far worse off then my family. And in a funny way, I'm happy.

We sit out on the porch at night and talk. I planted a garden and met two other neighborhood gardeners while handing out free veggies. Pat across the street has problems with her knees so we all take turns taking her garbage cans back and forth every week. I've never felt more of a sense of community and that has to be a good thing in life.

Perhaps when we come out of this we'll come out better and smarter, the way some of our grand parents and parents did before us. I hope so. I like this closer America that holds it's neighbors together in hard times. I hope we remember that some things matter more than cash and wheels and credit.

I see a simple fierceness in the people I meet on the street that tells me some of us won't be fooled again.

[Le Taz Hot]

6. THIS is what I'm talking about.

I'm convinced the rebuilding of this country will be from the bottom up. Last year I organized my first "plant swap" in April. Luckily, I live in an older neighborhood with an actual city park and they don't charge for this type of use, all I have to do is reserve the time and place I went door-to-door, handing out fliers plus I put it up on Craig's List. Anyway, people came from all over the area and swapped out the stuff in their yards they didn't want for stuff they did. People had everything from herbs to mango trees and everything in between. It was WILDLY successful and I plan on doing it several times more this year.

In fact, I've got this whole project brewing in my head and am just now committing it to paper that I'll write more about once I get it all solidified. It's basically what you wrote about in your post, but expanded.

Thanks for your contribution.

[asdjrocky]

8. It's one person at a time.

Talk to the people in your neighborhood. I hate to sound like Mr Rogers here, but it MATTERS! Think community gardens, especially if you're in a depressed area like myself.

I'm trying to put one together right now. Find a friend who will do the work with you, get a plot of land, then find money. (We're at the finding money part, it's the hardest.)

Our President, our Congress can only do so much, we have to be the change, and the change starts on our streets.

[asdjrocky]

10. And I love the idea of the plant swap by the way.

What a great idea! Just imagine a "plant swap" in a hundered communtiies across our swell country. That would be cool.

[jemsan]

5. Don't forget CSA's....

They are a super way of supporting local farms and get great food in the process.


http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

[Le Taz Hot]

7. Yes, this is an excellent resource!

Completely cuts out the middle man and you KNOW what you're buying and who you are buying from. Some are actually coops wherein you can work for your food/supplies. The money stays in the community where it is reinvested in the community. No Wall Street moguls needed (did we ever need them?).

Thanks for this.

[Gold Metal Flake]

9. Que the "you are racist if you don't buy chinese goods" guy.

He'll be around when he gets his drink on.

Edit: an s

[Le Taz Hot]

11. Sorry, if I have a choice between

buying locally-made merchandise, or even just American-made merchandise, I'm going to buy it before I buy the cheap slave-labor-produced merchandise. If someone chooses to deduce that I'm a racist because I prefer to buy locally then I think that says far more about them than it does about me. Besides, I live in a culturally-mixed neighborhood and the locally-owned businesses reflect that diversity.

[defendandprotect]

12. We're lucky that we have a very active town store situation .....

but now invaded by corporate stores -- Coach, Victoria's Secret, Panera's type stuff --

which I stay out of --- Many of them.

My daughter likes Ann Taylor so I shop there once or twice a year for her. Gift certificate.

Banana Republic - No.

Also avoid TARGET, HOME DEPOT, large drug stores --- anything like that.

Drug Fair has been in our town 20 years so kind of local.

I had to buy a cheap keyboard one snowy night in Target -- rest of these big stores I've never

even been in!!

Oops . .. PJ Richards . . . had to buy a small TV there -- $89, with great text when you mute it!

AND, a monitor for my computer -- nothing left like that in our town.

Have to say, we're pretty much wiped out in our town for appliances -- whether washing machines/

dryers or TVs. We had a great store here, but the owner retired more than 5 years ago and

that's pretty much it. I did buy air conditioners from a small shop in the next town. I don't

think they have TV/appliance stores either any more!

[asdjrocky]

13. Kicking for interest in the local movement.

[Catshrink]

14. I buy a lot at our local Goodwill.

Can't beat the prices and the money creates jobs in the community.

[starroute]

15. Don't forget local workers and contractors

If you need insulation or storm windows, roofing or general handyman work, you can generally find somebody local. Long established family businesses, retired people operating out of their garages, whatever.

Same thing for auto mechanics -- I used Pep Boys for a while because they were open on weekends and were just down the street. But after a couple of major screwups I washed my hands of them and I'm back to the local guys. (Just for starters, my local guy diagnosed and fixed a stalling problem I'd had for two years that Pep Boys had charged me $500 on without managing to fix anything.)

Local banks too -- and generally the older and smaller the better. We switched away 20 years ago from a bank that was local but already getting too big for its britches -- and after that they were bought out by something even bigger, which was then acquired by CoreStates, and now I think it's all part of Wachovia. Meanwhile, we're with the bank that has been here in town for the last hundred years and is about as stable and community-friendly as you could find.

[Tsiyu]

16. This is who we hope to grow for this year

(Our local site, that is.) My daughter is doing some writing for them as well for a college project.

I know a few of the growers in our local group. Good peeps.

http://www.locallygrown.net/



.

[Tsiyu]

18. Kick for the night crew

:kick: