Mo' better local

My wife and I visited Rivertooth in Shelton this week. Rivertooth, like Olympia’s Gravity, is a local business selling beer and wine. The selection was impressive. On our way home, we stopped for dinner at the Iron Rabbit, one of our favorite restaurants in Olympia.

I had a small epiphany that I want to share. When I was growing up in Iowa, local business pretty uniformly meant less business. The small town market never stocked the variety of produce that was available at Safeway (actually, it was a Piggly Wiggly). The local clothing store never had anything in my size except socks. This helps explain why Walmart was welcomed with such open arms in so many little towns in America, where it quickly kills off the small competing businesses.

With quick and ubiquitous shipping to and from the four corners of the earth, I think all that has changed. Shopping at a local business now allows you find goods and services that aren’t available in the bigger, national chains. Yes, the Safeway has a pretty good selection of crafted beers (as does Top Foods or other big grocery stores) but because they’re appealing to the mass consumer, there are lots of options that just aren’t available unless you shop in a small local store.

Although my wife isn’t fond of it, I like to try some specialty meats like goat or beef tongue. The only place I’ve found them has been at the meat market on Martin Way (near the intersection of Marvin Rd). I wanted a good winter coat and because it needed to be Very Large, I spent a couple of weeks shopping online. I wound up buying it at g.miller because they could get the size I needed and at a price less than I was finding online.

As an (excessively) small local business owner, I’ve tried to support local business because I know that 60 cents out of every dollar spent in a local business stays in the community. I’ve always considered it an opportunity to support my entrepreneurial neighbors and bring income to local government.

Yes, there’s a little more driving around to get what I want but, heck, that’s why I went shopping in the first place…to get what I want. Now I’m finding that, as a consumer, shopping local is a way to get more better stuff.