Buying local helps the neighbors
This past weekend I got it in my head to finally use that
fondue pot my sister-in-law and brother-in-law gave us for Christmas. Well, actually, they gave it to us three Christmases ago.
It was cold outside and the kids were restless. What better way to make everyone happy than a big hot pot of melted cheese and simmering beef broth, and lots of stuff to dip into them.
I set out to buy many of the ingredients I would need from local businesses. By local, I don’t mean the big supermarket chains that line the busy thoroughfare near my neighborhood. I mean I wanted to buy as much as I could from my neighbors with no ties to conglomerates.
Little did I know I was part of a growing trend, a trend that's actually boosting business for local retailers.
I went to the butcher to get beef broth and filet mignon. (He actually cut the meat up in cubes for my fondue.) I went to a small family run farm to get the vegetables. I went to the neighborhood liquor store to get the wine for the cheese fondue. And, I went to a small bakery to get a French bread for dipping.
While I was driving around town going from store to store, I wondered if I was nuts trying so hard to buy local.
Turns out I’m not the only nut.
Independent merchants are seeing a growth in the desire among their customers to buy local, according to
a nationwide survey of more than 1,300 independent retailers.
The survey -- commissioned by the Independent Business Forum, a trade association network, and administered by
the Institute for Local Self-Reliance -- found that even in during these tough economic times, small businesses are doing OK, especially when they play up “their local ownership and community roots.”
"We're seeing the beginnings of a shift in people's shopping choices, particularly in places where 'buy local' campaigns have brought this to the forefront of public consciousness. 'Locally owned' is following in the footsteps of 'organic' as people look for ways to support a more sustainable economy and revitalize their communities," said Stacy Mitchell, author of
“Big-Box Swindle” and senior researcher for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
In those cities that had “Buy Local” campaigns, small retailers reported better holiday sales than those merchants in cities that had no such initiatives.
What’s getting more people thinking local, are the growing movements to eat healthier and books like
Michael Pollan’s “
The Omnivore's Dilemma”, that looks at how our food is grown and what we're eating. His book is a must read if you ever wondered what the heck you were putting in your mouth.
I came across a Q&A with the author at
environmental news site, Grist, where he addresses the issue of local food.
Pollan answered a question about the growing desire for local foods: “People have looked to food for all these values for thousands of years -- food was a way to come together, it was a way to express your identity, it was a way to engage with nature -- food has always had this power. And I think we've had a kind of temporary forgetting of that, and this idea that food is just fuel, food is about health or illness, these very simplistic, reductive ideas have kind of thinned out the whole experience. But there's a desire to thicken it again, and lo and behold food is providing all these satisfactions that people were missing.”
And surely, the local butcher, the baker and candlestick maker are all missing you.
