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.

Summertime

I’m having a sick day, which means I get to shop online. Do you do that? I pick shops from my Index and go crazy when I’m at home sick. Surf! I can’t stand daytime soaps and talk shows although I will always take reruns of M*A*S*H and bad eighties shows. I wish people still showed the A-Team. I can do without Knight Rider (the Hoff!) but I’ll gladly watch Magnum.

Anyway! Shopping! So I put together another indie outfit, which I am wont to do. This one reflects some recent interests of mine - kimono fabric pieces & kimono-inspired fabric, resin jewelry, handmade shoes, and summer.

One: a beautiful japanese-inspired fabric on a summer halter top. I like that there’s actually fabric that comprises the back of this instead of a small strap (which would make me think someone was going to untie my shirt). I do like the ribbons here, particularly the color. Empire Waist Shirt Dress from Etsy seller Strawberry Farm (aka sugarsandwich).

Two: a pinstriped dark blue denim skirt with black lace detail, cut on a slight a-line. No waistband (I hate waistbands for some reason). Nice casual-but-not-boring skirt from Etsy shop For Tootsie.

Three and Four: lovely, lovely strong colors and shapes can be found in the silver-and-resin jewelry designs of Lulu Smith’s studio. Shown here are the Bauble Earrings (sold!) and the Ripple Bracelet from her online show for Mother’s Day 2008.

Five: a clutch of bright sari fabric embellished with bows from the Nappa Studio of Aya, whose designs to blend East and West.

Six: these Mohop Shoes are pretty awesome. They feature a clever design that allows you to change out the ribbons to coordinate with whatever you’re wearing. The sole is handmade of wood and comes in several styles. Their gallery of ribbon-tying examples is inspiring. The ones shown are High Cherry Wedges with 5/8″ red-and-gold ribbon.

Introducing Local Tier 2

For the last several days Jeff and I have been shopping locally.  Remember when I said I was going to do that?  Well, today is day four, and so far we’ve stuck to the plan, but we’re still mostly Fact Finding.  As you can imagine, there are problems with doing this.  It was part of the idea to figure out where the problems would be, and see how inconvenient shopping locally really is.

Going Out to Eat: chances are, this it isn’t a problem to find a local restaurant wherever you are.  Or delivery either.  Around here you can get local pizza and Chinese delivery, plus during the week people will actually bring you soup and casseroles.  No kidding.

Grocery Shopping:  this is more of a challenge.  Locally, I thought we’d have more choice but it turns out our options are the farmer’s market, Wheatsville Co-op, Greenling organic vegetable delivery and Grape Vine Market (which is more liquor/specialty).  I refuse to count Whole Foods, even though it started here and still has its corporate offices here.

Specialty Stores: No problem whatsoever to find coffee and tea.  We have a local gourmet tea shop (Tea Embassy) and places to purchase specialty coffee too.  Also, things like a haircut, boutique clothing, record shops (Waterloo!), all okay.  We also have a really excellent local outdoor shop with great shoes, Whole Earth Provision company.  Oh!  and Vulcan Video and the Alamo Drafthouse for movies.

Bookstores, Coffee Shops:  Austin’s fortunate enough to have a really great bookstore called BookPeople, and there are more coffee shops here than you’d think the population could support.  So, good on those fronts.  Without these things, I’d probably wither and die.  I’m a total book/coffee addict.

Crafting:  Near my house there are 2 local yarn shops and 2 bead shops.  There are also some sewing/fabric stores and even a local upholstery/interior design fabric shop.  However, if you want to do any other sort of crafts I think you might be out of luck.  Also, pretty thin on local hardware stores - all we’ve got is the small boutique-y places.

Summation on day 4:  it’s easy to get specialty items and fun stuff here, but not as easy to find the basics.  It’s going to be difficult to find basics in a lot of cases, things like normal toilet paper, new socks for running, etc.  We’re trying to decide what to do about that.

We’ve thought about instituting a “Tier 1″ and “Tier 2.”  Tier 1 would be Austin local and Tier 2 would be Texas stores so it’s still somewhat local but we could still manage to live in a functional manner when the situation called for it.

Anyway, will report again next week with what’s happened, and whether we were able to get groceries!