Shopping Local

Originally submitted by: barcode 2x

The first week of this month was "Shop Local Week" in Ann Arbor. I try to shop local all the time, but this was the week to try and bring awareness to local businesses. I find that the reasons to shop local are obvious: 1. Keep the money in the community. 2. Service is generally better. The employees are loyal and more willing to help you. They have a vested interest in keeping your business. 3. From an environmental standpoint, most locally owned businesses are way more responsible about handling their waste. If you shop local, you know more about your own carbon footprint. My experience with local stores has been mixed. You don't get the variety, and you probably pay a lot more to shop in a small store as opposed to a major national chain. You pay more for the better service, which you do get, most of the time. My major exception to this has been when I've dealt with storage businesses, all of which are sketchy, in my opinion. Very rude people work there. You get yelled at as soon as you walk in the door. And you just know that somebody is storing a body in there. And many mechanics treat you like an asshole. I don't know anything about cars. So when I ask for something, and they give me a bunch of tech-talk, and not so much as a "Can I help you" on the phone, I get disgruntled with them, I think they're rude, and that's why I don't have any loyalty to one mechanic or another. You can't one-stop-shop in these places. You're driving all over. Many of these businesses are so specific, you are compelled to go to a big box store to get it all at once. I hate shopping. And I hate paying for parking, so I'd rather shop somewhere with a big free parking lot. I'm a big fan of re-use of objects. The network of products and sellers on craigslist.com is phenomenal. I think craigslist is the best thing ever to happen on the internet. I bought my winter coat this way. It's a beautiful blue Carhartt that I bought off a 19-year-old college co-ed. She's probably selling off her ex-boyfriend's stuff, and he's going to see me in a bar and jump me. But it's a warm coat. There are many objects you can buy used. For a few weeks I was trying to buy everything I could, used. I contemplated living like that for the rest of my life, only buying used items. It nearly drove me nuts, because all of the things you take for granted, like going to buy a pair of pants, suddenly became a whole lot more difficult. Even if I was saving a ton of money. I struck a compromise: I would buy used when I could, and when I couldn't, I would buy local. I haven't finished my holiday shopping, not by a longshot. I'm headed to Target right now, against my own best judgment. I don't even know what I'm going there to get. I just know that I'm going. But then again, I'm shopping for someone else, not for myself. Perhaps I can't push my agenda on anyone else. It's just me, my used car, my used coat, and all my used stuff, from God-knows-where. All of it bears the energy, somehow, of the previous owner. I'm in a costume. It's a used look. But no one gets hurt by it. Few natural resources are expended in the process. Did you know that it takes a gallon of gasoline to produce a printer cartridge? You can buy them used. Or you can refill your old ones. Did you know it takes a cup of oil to produce and distribute a diaper? Think about that next time you go to Wal-Mart, for convenience' sake.