Step 5 - Boycott Box Stores, Chain Retailers & Restaurants

Now that you learned how and why to shop locally, it's time to take it a step further by no longer shopping at chain retailers and box stores, and eating at chain restaurants. Boycotting them sends a message that consumers will not tolerate their poor business tactics and that we desire local, vibrant downtown districts filled with independent businesses. Every dollar spent at a Walmart, Circuit City or Applebee's is vote of confidence for that business. Buy spending your money there, you are giving those companies the message that you agree with the poor quality products, there unfair labor practices, and there disregard for local economies. Often, when I have discussed this step with people, I get the same response - "It's not my fault that Walmart does bad business." Everytime I have to remind the person that every dollar we spend is a vote. It would be like voting for the worst candidate on the ballot, then saying it's not your fault they got elected.

As consumers it is time we take ownership over where we spend our money and how our money is used by these businesses. As discussed in the previous steps, money spent at local businesses stays within our communities because they use local banks, local print shops, local newspapers, and typically live locally. When we shop at big box stores, that money is funneled directly out of the community and back to headquarters. Boycotting those businesses sends a signal that we cannot and will not support them draining our communities, living off of them like a parasite.

If you're used to shopping at a box store and getting your goods and food cheap, this next step may be the hardest for you. That's why I'm going to give you this tip - 20% change is better than no percent. Every little bit helps. If you usually buy your shower curtains at Walmart, reconsider and buy them at a local store. If you usually eat at Applebee's for your date night - look around your community and see what restaurants are available right there. You don't have to commit 100%, just enough to make a difference, and before you know it, you won't even remember how to find the Walmart on the edge of town because your vision will be blocked by all those booming local businesses right in your community.

Step 4 - Familiarize Yourself With Local Businesses

STEP 4

Open up a phone book, or take a walk downtown and get to know your local businesses. For those of us who live in towns, cities and communities that have a "Main Street" or a downtown area, we are blessed to have all those wonderful shops within walking distance of each other. But sadly, not many of us utilize this convenience and downtowns all over the country are full of empty store fronts and run-down buildings. The consequences of this are tremendous. Local businesses are owned by members within your community, they hire your neighbors, they use other local services (banks, print shops, newspapers), and because of all that, the money you spend at these local businesses stays within your community. 

The opposite is true of big box stores and chain retailers. Although they hire local people to work their stores, they pay them less and offer less benefits (many Walmart employees are on state supplied health insurance and food assistance programs), they bank at their headquarters in Arkansas, and they do all their printing there as well. Supporting these types of national stores detracts money from your community, it closes down locally owned businesses, and it does detrimental environmental damage.

So back to locally owned businesses we must go. The benefits of shopping locally far outweigh the few cents or dollars you save by shopping at a chain retailer. The American Independent Business Alliance states on their website for creating local economies through Buy Local campaigns:


Think of your favorite shop, restaurant, farm or service provider. We'll bet it's a homegrown business. Independent locally-owned businesses are essential to a vital local economy and community character. They're where the locals go. They're owned by our friends and neighbors, or maybe even by you. Community-serving businesses are the backbone of local economies, civic life, local charities, and wealth creation for millions of citizens, as well as a training ground for future generations of entrepreneurs.

The next time you need to go shopping, head downtown first. Familiarize yourself with the businesses within your community. Look at their inventory, meet the employees and owner, and find out their histories – are they from your town? Why did they open the store? How long have they been open? Every dollar you spend at a local business stays within your community, and the more money that stays in our communities, the stronger they will be.


I will give you a brief personal anecdote about the relationship I have with my local businesses in Bath. There is a toy store downtown, Papa Ghepetto's, and I have four children. My parents went into that store to buy Christmas presents the week after they opened and bought these amazing Melissa & Doug puppets. They told me about the store and I went to check it out with my children. In the years since, we have bought 85% of all our kids toys there because the benefit of doing so has been immeasurable. The owners know us, they love our children, and there have been several times they have gone out of their way to make us happy. They gave one child a fairy princess for free because a butterfly had broken off (this child did not care if the butterfly was there or not). Another time they gave us a box of Melissa & Doug castle building blocks for free because they had used them as a display. The owner called and talked to the Melissa & Doug customer service for me when I bought some wooden cupcakes that were not up to par - the result was a 2nd box of cupcakes for free! They even sold us their train table for ridiculously cheap. I wouldn't get that type of service at Toys 'R Us, Walmart or Target.


This is only one story among many I have of how shopping locally at the businesses owned by my neighbors and friends has been a rewarding and fulfilling experience. Please take a moment and share in the comments any anecdotes you have about your experiences supporting local businesses.

Step 3 - Define Your Region

STEP 3

Once you become aware of where your consumer goods and food are coming from, it is important to set your boundaries. This definition is entirely up to you. Some people do it by miles, some by hours it would take to drive, and some by their region of the country. For example, I live in Maine, so I define my region as New England – anything within this handful of states is local. Of course, it’s not always as cut and dry as that, and it’s not always possible to buy 100% local, but defining a region at least gives you a starting point, and an identity. Our global marketplace has created a global identity – no longer are we culturally bound to where we live when we can buy clothes from Bangladesh, read newspapers from Japan, and eat mangoes from Brazil. I am definitely not saying to forgo these entirely – that is a whole other discussion – but to understand that when the world is at our fingertips, we have more difficulty appreciating the people, goods and food that is right around us.

This step can be difficult, I won’t argue against that. With the modern marketplace, getting goods from places like China, India and Japan is cheaper for retailers, then getting American made goods. Wal-Mart, and other large box stores, sways the market by demanding lower and lower prices from the manufacturer, forcing them to take their business overseas to factories can offer the cheapest goods. Getting goods made in America is more costly because we have a minimum wage to be paid to workers, and because we have stricter environmental standards. However, retailers are less concerned with the quality of product, and more concerned with the top dollar and satisfying their shareholders. This said, it can be extremely difficult at times to buy goods manufactured within your region. But when you can, it is worth it.

I have spent many a shopping trip flipping over products and weighing my options about which is closer to home – if it’s not available from my established region, I find the closest one. This isn’t just about supporting local business, though, but also about limiting our oil dependency. When items are shipped from overseas, or even the other side of the country, the amount of oil used is astounding. The closer to home the product came from, the less oil – and with our rapid depletion of fossil fuels, less oil consumption is always better, not to mention the effect burning that oil has on the environment and our quality of air, water and soil.

Defining your region for food is perhaps easier. There are several resources online to find local food suppliers, to locate a Community Supported Agriculture share at a nearby farm, or to at least shop at a locally owned grocery store. Supporting your local farmer and food system is one of the most important things we can do as a consumer. Knowing where your food comes from can give you peace of mind in this day in age. Trusting our nourishment to billion dollar corporations that runs beef, pig, poultry or agricultural farms is like taking a giant gamble where the odds of winning are a thousand to one. Food is the breath of life, it keeps us going, provides us with the nutrients and minerals we need, and it keeps our civilization going. Why risk buying beef from a feedlot where cattle are exposed to numerous diseases because of excessive contact with fecal matter and fed high fat diets (including the bones and blood of the cattle slaughtered before them)? Or why eat vegetables grown with heavy doses of herbicides (which have been directly linked to diseases such as Parkinson’s and respiratory cancer), then shipped thousands of miles to storage facilities where they are ripened with ethanol gas?

Knowing where and how your food is grown can literally be a lifesaver. Every day in the United States over 200,000 people suffer a food borne illness, with over 900 being hospitalized, and about 15 who will die (Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, p. 195). Those most at risk are the elderly and children, whose immune systems cannot fight off the poisoning of such bacteria as Salmonella and E. coli. In 1996 the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released the findings of a survey that tested samples of meat from a handful of meat processing plants and found that 7.5% of the ground beef was contaminated with Salmonella, 11.7% with Listeria monocytogenes, 30% with Staphylococcus aureus, and 53.3% were contaminated with Clostridium perfringens. The testing was done in 1993 and 1994, but the results were delayed two years, so any information they found, although still appalling and interesting to the general public, did not help stop any food borne illnesses that would have (and most certainly did) occur from consuming this tainted meat.

Before you go to the store to buy something the next time, think first about where your region is, what you define as local. Then do your best. If you can’t find something within your region, find the closest possible. Remember that every little bit counts and that doing something is always better than doing nothing.

Walmart's Pork Supplier Exposed

A Word About Perfection

Before I keep going with this blog, and highlighting the 12 steps to buying locally, I want to take a few minutes to talk about perfection. By definition (according to Merriam Webster), perfection means: The quality or state of being perfect, being without faults or defects; or an exemplification of supreme excellence. I don't know about any of you, but I know I'm not perfect, nor is anyone I know. We all have our faults, and although many of us may be excellent at things, we are not excellent at everything. Perfection is a desirable, yet more than likely unreachable, goal for many. And that's okay.

My point is, when we are moving ahead in our journey to be more self-aware of who we are, what we are doing, and how we are consuming, perfection should not be the goal. If you set your goal is something that is not attainable, then our failure will come too easily because every little act of straying from this lofty goal will make us feel as though we are not good enough. I don't want that for any of you. I want positive feelings of making a change in ourselves, because it is much easier living life in the light rather than in the dark. Positivity makes us feel good about what we are doing, and that is the most important feeling in this journey.

For example, I'm not perfect. Far from it, in fact. And although I have laid out these 12 steps to buying local, don't expect that I live each step to its fullest every single day of my life. I have weaknesses just like every one else. Take my love of Guinness. That is certainly not local, and most definitely not a sustainable beer choice, but when I go out, that's what I order. Why? Because I'm not perfect. But, knowing that it is not the best choice is part of these 12 steps. And knowing that I buy it anyway is accepting that I cannot be perfect, but that every little bit I do, does count, so if I fail to be perfect along the way, I'm not a failure - just human.

Recently I received my book back from the editors, with some final adjustments outlined throughout it. One of them was a question about a statement I make regarding an apple juice product that wasn't from Maine. The editor asked why the author would consider buying the juice if it didn't fit into her agenda. My answer - because my kids asked me to. We were at the store, they were begging for some apple juice and I grabbed a frozen concentrate container and flipped it over. It stated it contained juices from 3 different countries (none of them the USA), so I didn't buy it. But I did consider it, and that doesn't mean my agenda of buying locally is a hoax, it simply means that I am not perfect.

As you move forward in your journey with me to consume local goods and food, keep this in mind. You are not perfect. But if you do your best to be aware and knowledgeable of the choices you are making, then you are on the right path. Steering off it from time to time will not get you lost so long as you remember how to get back.

Step 2 - Necessity

Necessity

When you go to purchase an item, no matter where it is from, think twice before you do so, and ask yourself if you need it or not. Can you live without it? Do you want to live without it? Is there a way to buy it second-hand? 

This may be the most difficult step because it forces us to question our needs versus our wants. In a culture where we are able to fulfill most of our desires with minimal effort, it will take a good deal of willpower to step back from that culture and question these desires. But in doing so, we will gain a great deal of understanding about what we need to survive, what we need to feel comfortable, and what we want for pure enjoyment. This doesn't mean forgoing everything we have come to enjoy, however. If you're a coffee drinker, you will probably make the decision that coffee is a necessity. Or if you adore avocados, but live in a cold-weather climate that doesn't have the ability to grow avocados, then you will continue to buy them at the grocer. In order for us to re-evaluate our needs, it doesn't mean forgoing all comforts, just limiting them. It is also key to understand that even if you do keep items like coffee and avocados in your diet, there is still the opportunity to localize your purchases. Instead of buying avocados from Mexico, buy them from California. Find a local coffee roaster within your state. This way you are still supporting American businesses, while giving yourself a level of comfort.


Buying second-hand is also a fantastic way to get the things you want, and the things you need, in a more sustainable fashion. A nice comfortable chair is not always a necessity, but that doesn't mean you don't still want it. In that case, visit a Salvation Army, Goodwill, or become a member of Freecycle. Buying second-hand keeps unwanted items out landfills while providing us with the things we desire to maintain a level of comfort. Also, keep in mind when you are getting rid of items you no longer need, to donate them to the aforementioned places,  passing them on to the next person, and again, keeping them out of the landfills.


Consuming locally is important this day of age. Consuming only what we need is also vital. When we ship our foods and goods from all over the world we are using up natural resources that we no longer have to spare, we contribute to pollution, and we are giving our money to foreign businesses and industry's. Keeping our money home, within the country, will help build a stronger economy that can support us. Unfortunately, we live in a world where our food and goods are global commodity's, so finding what we need locally is not easy, and not always possible. But when it is, we should make the effort. When it is not, we should pause to question whether or not we need it, and whether or not we can find it used. Just pausing to question our choices, our needs, our wants, and our desires, makes us more conscious consumers.

Step 1 - Knowledge

Over the next 12 months I will highlight the 12 steps towards becoming a conscious consumer and helping to localize the economy. Most, if not all, of these steps take a small amount of effort, but offer a big amount of change. If each of us do our best to follow these guidelines and to become more aware of our consuming habits, then I believe we can change the broken system of our flailing economy.

KNOWLEDGE

Flip over the products and look where it was made or grown, and look at the ingredients or products that go into it. Read up on companies and corporations you buy from most often. As many children of the 1980’s remember, GI Joe says “knowing is half the battle.” With every purchase we are making a vote for that product and who produces it. It’s unlikely that we would go to the voting polls on Election Day without having done a little bit of research on who we are voting for, so we should hold ourselves to the same standard at the store. 

CHALLENGE: Next time you go to the grocery store, or to any store, before you purchase an item find out where it came from. If you still decide to purchase the item, you have at least educated yourself and are fully aware of where the items you consume come from. That's a big step in and of itself. You may also find that you flip over an item and see it comes from Brazil, while a similar item comes from New York, and as long as cost allows, buying the closer product is a big step. 

Being a knowledgeable consumer is the first step towards making change, because without the knowledge, it's impossible to make accurately informed decisions. Every dollar spent is a vote for the company/business you're shopping at, and every product you're consuming. In order to make accurate purchases, gather all the information you can. A great book that can assist with this is The Better World Shopping Guide: Every Dollar Makes a Difference. The authors rate products, businesses and corporations based on a well-explained system of grading. There is a handy pocket-sized version that you can take shopping with you, too, so you don't have to memorize their rating system and what companies get A's and which get F'.

KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE.