green and more than beans

[debbiej]

this week I attended a green chamber of commerce meeting. pretty cool. main topic was local support. how to inspire people to shop and support local business. how local business can support each other. I will join, have offered a side of my building for a "shop local" logo to be painted on.

but.
how can a shop support local business when it add $$ to the cost of supplies? they say "local first" and I agree. but Sams sells milk for $2+ a gallon compared to a local market price of twice that.

should one buy a cow, some chickens and plant a garden?

jk. but what is the answer?

 

[shadow745]

I agree on the cost of buying local. We get our dairy at WalMart using a tax exemption and that is affordable. But like you, I can't afford to buy everything locally because then you have to raise prices to compensate and some people don't care where you get your goods from and don't like paying more because it is local.

We live in a fairly rural county and people always ask if our beans, etc. are local and I tell them our roaster is about 40 miles away. I'm guessing they think there are coffee roasters in every town/city around us. They just don't think it's local because our roaster isn't well known to the public. I get asked if we use Larry's beans because they are local. Funny thing is Larry's is in the same city as our roaster...

I do buy propane, diesel, dairy, pastries, etc. locally because those are the things that are affordable for what they are. It is benefiting the local economy in one way or another. Later!

 

[topher]

We approached a local coffee shop that did a huge buy local campaign...adds basically saying buy from them because they are local and avoid the large chain shops. I went in with samples and they snubbed me and said they buy from a place that wasn't local...made me chuckle a bit.

 

[John P]

I am all for supporting local.

But that being said, as a small business owner, my take is that you should support local if they are making a better product or offering a better service. When the chain is equal to or better than a particular local business, it says a lot about that business, and the fact is, many local businesses fall short. Support excellence, and encourage all the local businesses to be great at what they do. The local businesses that care about providing something spectacular will be justly rewarded.

 

[GOLDENEAGLECOFFEEMAN]

We can never please everyone, or sometimes make sense of some of
the Responces we get, as is well reported above.

Might be time for some of the regional shop owners to band together,
store a supply of Quality Coffee ect, for all to draw from, and keep it Local.

Stress, we keep it Local for You,and Fresh too, because its here,
and the Qty buy will keep everyones price and storage down,
the California Fresh eggs campaign worked Huge, when oudside eggs came into question.

Fresh, safe and its local they said.

Hope this might work for some of you, but what works in one area, might not in another.
We would suggest trying it on a small scale first, then expand if its working.

Best to All.
Rick H