Shop Locally: Independent Businesses vs. Big-Box Stores
Rhea Becker is a Boston-based journalist and blogs at The Boomer Chronicles, a fantastic site for baby boomers. She employs humor (e.g. ‘œDoes this blog make me look fat?’) and other commentary about life on the verge of fifty (check out her five-part series on Aging and Our Senses). She’s written a guest post for Queercents about the demise of the mom and pop shop in America and why we should support local businesses. These are her words’¦
I’m lucky. Independent businesses are plentiful in my neighborhood of Boston (Jamaica Plain). This enables me to spend my money at a shop owned by an individual rather than continue to stuff the belly of the corporate beast. So instead of shopping at Home Depot or Lowe’s, I shop at the locally owned hardware store. One Saturday morning a few years ago I was out doing my errands when I stopped at the hardware store for a few things. When I got to the register, I realized I had meant to go to my bank first. I didn’t have a cent (nor a credit card) on me. I told the man behind the counter that I would be back to buy my things later. Without missing a beat, he began to ring up my purchases. ‘œYou’re in here all the time. Just come back and pay later.’ Try that at Home Depot.
I bought my television at the local TV and radio repair shop. I bought my refrigerator at the local appliance shop. Instead of shopping at the chain store KaBloom, I shop at the locally owned flower shop. I eat at one-of ‘“a-kind, local restaurants instead of chains. In fact, my neighborhood is so consciously opposed to chains that we have no Starbucks and no McDonald’s. Imagine that! We are a real anachronism.
It’s true that it’s not easy for some people to patronize local businesses. The prices are almost always higher at independent stores than at big-box competitors, but the experience is worth it to me. I don’t have to drive and use precious fossil fuel to get to these stores, the interaction is more real and humane, and these kinds of shops keep our business district lively and interesting, whereas chains are cold, plastic and predictable. I will continue to shop locally for as long as I can. And I have many friends and neighbors who have made the same pledge.
I am such a big believer in independent businesses that I was quoted in the local paper opposing a sub-shop chain that was going to take a storefront on our main drag. We already had several locally owned sub shops. Why make life hard for these business owners? My independent-business evangelism has even taken the form of a screenplay I’ve written called ‘œDrawing the Line,’ which tells the tale of a young man who fights the All-Mart Corporation when it decides to establish a superstore in his little town. Guess what? He wins. I hope the screenplay will one day be made into a film, as its message is timely for the communities across this country (and, now, the world) that are fighting the incursion of giant stores.
I realize that independent businesses and their fans are swimming against a powerful tide of Wal-Marts and Targets. But there’s hope. There are lots of resources online these days that help citizens to organize against Wal-mart and the other big-box stores. There are numerous documentary films on the subject, and books, too. A woman named Stacy Mitchell recently came to my ‘˜hood to give a talk on the subject of big-box stores vs. independent stores. Her book, Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses, details the way that these gigantic stores get a foothold in our communities — and it is not by playing fair. Here are a few sites that will help you educate yourself and take action.
More about Rhea Becker
Rhea Becker is a longtime journalist (People magazine, The Boston Globe and The Boston Phoenix) and was also managing editor of Harvard University’s newspaper. She is the author and creator of The Boomer Chronicles, an irreverent blog for baby boomers, which has been written up in The Boston Globe. She is also an aspiring screenwriter seeking new representation.
Is Amazon “big box”? I order everything I can on Amazon. It’s great. I run a small service business, but I would never pay local sales tax for something I could order on Amazon.
I do patronize local restaurants–and I am lucky to have more than I could ever visit.
Over a year ago I made a conscious decision not to patronize WalMart any longer. And you know what? It hasn’t been hard at all to avoid WalMart. I have sought out local businesses and given them my trade.
My in-laws recently moved to Arkansas and claim that the only choice in their small town is WalMart. I went to visit them in December and while I was there, I drove around their town. I pointed out to them that there are plenty of choices: the local hardware and lumber store was well stocked, there were two independent grocery stores in town as well as pharmacies, and the old fashioned main street has many small businesses.
I believe if we make the choice to support small local businesses (even if we have to pay a few cents more) that it will benefit us all in the long run.
Amazon is big box, but online. I shop at independent bookstores as much as possible. When I know the book I want, I go to an independent store. If they don’t carry it, I order it from them. Sometimes, though, when a book is difficult to find I go to a chain store. But I just can’t get myself to shop at Amazon or other giant online book purveyors.
Amazon has many better alternatives, esp. considering they’ve destroyed thousands of indie bookstores and hugely impacted the cultural lives of many communities.
I use several ONLINE alternatives to Amazon (when I can’t get a book at my local):
Powell’s is a fantastic, enormous online indie bookseller; AbeBooks is a good connection for rare/used books from indie sources; and my local bookstore will order virtually anything for me as well (that’s Porter Square books in Cambridge ma.)
An informative post. I wish I had independently owned stores I could walk to in my neighborhood. It’s Safeway and a sub shop.
We have had growth management planning in Washington state since 1990. It has helped some communities save their historic downtowns. Since the law is local government driven, many communities seek the WalMarts, Home Depots, etc. We don’t have a state income tax here, so local governments compete for these big box stores for sales tax revenues.
I write a boomer consumer blog called The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide at http://boomersurvive-thriveguide.typepad.com.
I’m totally with you on buying local, but I want to point out that in some cases what appears to be a big evil chain really isn’t. all those Kabloom shops are independently-owned like any other franchise, even crap factories like Subway and McDonalds (thought far more the former than the latter).
if you’re talking about Warren Hardware, hell yeah, but yuppie huts like Lionette’s Market are so hilariously expensive that I don’t bother. (Boston-specific)