Act within local variable scope …

Nerd humor! Yeah, I totally stole that from a T-shirt at ThinkGeek that completely cracks me up. I might just have to have that shirt.

So it occurred to me that I said I’d report back on the local-shopping experiment that Jeff and I did back in May. I almost forgot about it. That should tell you something about how easily it went that I forgot I was even doing it. It turns out it was easy to do, and I really enjoyed shopping at more of the local places.

I kind of bailed out in the last week because there were a few things I needed to get like TP and pet food - and honestly, the basics can be pretty hard to get from local places. Locally owned shops specialize by necessity. I have spoken to a number of people who don’t shop locally or buy things that are local or handmade because of the price. In most cases, people say it has to be “something special” or unique in some way to justify the additional cost. Because of that, I’d imagine that for a local shopowner you have to specialize in some way or offer unique items to be able to make sales at all. The national chains buy in such quantity that local or independent shopkeepers cannot compete on prices.

The catch is, of course, where do you want your money to go? What do you want it to support?

The local Austin Independent Business Alliance has info on their site from a report that says that for every $100 an Austinite spends, $45 stays in the local economy if you shop locally, while only $13 stays if you purchase from a chain store. I support my local economy because honestly, it supports me. A strong local economy means more jobs and higher wages locally. A strong local economy means more is spent on charities like the one I work for. Let’s be pragmatic here: money leaving Austin doesn’t do me any good.

I also think that the dollar is a vote. Your money votes for you whenever you spend it - it sends signals about what you like, what you support and what you think. My votes go to supporting people working for themselves. I’d like to own my own business and work for myself one day, so I think it would be really hypocritical of me to not support the very type of businesses that I one day want to own. Hopefully, my dollars vote that I like local business, handmade items, crafting and food. The more votes for those things, the more they can thrive.

Finally, I like my landscape to be non-generic. I’ve lived in a variety of places across the United States and I did that because I wanted to see what places were like, what their individual cultures were about. And let me tell you, big box stores detract from a place’s personality. I guarantee to you that what I remember about Colorado was not Target, it was the huge and lovely summertime farmer’s market (OMG the garlic variety! the flowers! the tamales!). K-Mart didn’t make a huge impression on me in New York, but the sandwich shop down the road owned by 2 brothers from the Bronx did. I don’t have fond memories of the Wal-Mart in Massachuetts, but the local library actually had a cataloguing system I’d never seen before, and that’s memorable. Local businesses are part of a place’s culture, they’re part of what makes each place unique and interesting. Austin wouldn’t be Austin without its local businesses.

I probably spend a little more money shopping locally than I would otherwise. Short-term, I’m out more funds. But I think the extra few $$ is an investment that’s worth it because of the long-term benefits of my choice. I’ve invested in people I know, I’ve invested in the place I call home, and I’ve invested in my own industry and job security. And it wasn’t even hard to do. I hope my experiment will ultimately turn into a good habit.