Sunday November 22nd, 2009
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To Consume or Not to Consume… Part 2: Consume More!
Posted by Belinda Miller on May 25, 2009 - 11:39pm.
Last week’s blog was all about how hard it was for me to buy a much-needed brand new shovel, because we should try to consume less due to all our stuff causing a lot of problems in the world. Thinking about every purchase and balancing need and want is a good way to curtail unnecessary stuff, and especially those compulsive purchases that seem so important at the time, but end up taking up shelf and life space. But it also makes me feel somewhat deprived.
This week I’m talking about the joys of consuming… for a cause. Whee!
Since I’ve been on both a non-consumer binge and a spending freeze, I haven’t spent much time in my favorite local stores, just window-shopping, sniffing soaps, glancing at potential future family gifts. But Georgia has been in a class that walks me right into the heart of our fabulous urban hub. And I’ve been enjoying just stopping in stores I used to frequent, before the era of deprivation hit. But I haven’t felt that deprived. In fact, I felt enlightened. In the awesome Powell’s Books for Cooks I saw a recycled plastic outdoor rug that I had seen in the World Market circular (circulars having taken the place of window-shopping these days). A CFL went off in my brain. If I had decided the rug passed the test of want vs. need (and it hasn’t), and if our budget eased up (it’s not likely for while), I would have driven to World Market instead of buying the rug at my locally owned, keystone store in my own neighborhood.
I decided that window-shopping, and wanting stuff, even if it’s stuff I’ll never buy, isn’t such a bad thing. I don’t need to completely shut that out. It keeps me connected to my neighborhood and makes me remember that when I am going to buy something, it needs to be from one of these stores, especially during this difficult economic time. And then, as serendipity would have it, I came across the 3/50 Project.
The 3/50 Project’s mission is to keep locally owned brick-and-mortar businesses in business. In a world of Target, Wal-Mart and Home Depot, and even Trader Joe’s (which I frequent), doing business outside of the Big Box is a courageous thing, and small businesses are struggling, especially now. The 3/50 Project asks for a simple pledge:
3 – Choose three independent, locally owned businesses that you would miss is they disappeared.
50 – Spend $50 a month among the three.
And now here’s a stunning statistic I am trusting from the web site: “For every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures. If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays here. Spend it online, and nothing comes home.”
There’s no way I can commit to $50 a month (sorry Reading Frenzy), but I’m tossing the circulars into the recycling bin and doing my wish list shopping locally. Someday the spending freeze will thaw, and that recycled plastic rug will look really cute under my locally crafted, recycled wood porch swing!
So, Ma and Pa are the panacea for saving America's economy? Don't Mom and Pop tend to rely upon nepotism over hiring from the corrupted outside world of theives and vagabonds? When they do hire outside their family, some owners valiantly try to provide benefits only to shut them down since those prove too costly. Usually, however, Mom and Pop aren't valiant at all in the first place, right?!
I remember watching C-Span, and, the Republicans were left on the House floor pushing tax cuts for Mom and Pop businesses. Again, they indicated these small companies employed in the greatest numbers of Americans. (Let's remember this: Some of these are innovative tech companies that I think should be categorized differently--these latter actually have some potential to improve our lot in the U.S.)
Anyway, I imagined Michigan's Dick Durbin or some other prominent representative from an old-economy-industrial state listening patiently and then saying something like this: 'Mom and Pop are very fine citizens--as always, they'll continue to have a very important place in our economy: I have one question for those on the other side of the aisle: Are we reduced to "this?!"'
I think many here are somewhat naive to keep waving this torch.... It's not the whole story: We need clever innovation to solve bedeviling problems such as energy, climate change, water issuses, and pollution. I do acknowledge problems concerning Wally World, Tarjet, and Best Boy--for one thing, they are privileged "children" of city planners and suburban sprawl. Another is boxy-store reliance upon China, Asia, and Mexico--I do try to purchase U.S. products, if reasonable and practical. I do like to look for where items are made. If Americans cared more about this, and they are beginning to wake up, manufacturing would pick up here again--Made in the U.S.A. is a good selling point.
If smaller stores had many innovative product alternatives--then, they would be better assured of prosperity. Alternately, if they have merely the same items as that of major retailers--that's pointless and stupid. This is where American manufacturing can step in and ramp up again. Chinese products, even offered by different competing American companies, often are the same--differences are too often cosmetic. Keep an eye open for that--you'll see many examples of "copycat" products! American importers don't care!