R U supporting your neighbors and local homesteaders?

lonelyfarmgirl · #21 12/25/11, 11:13 AM

Excellent thread!

Smalltowngirl · #22 12/25/11, 11:34 AM

All of my Christmas gifts were bought in my small town(pop 4000) except for 1 piece of jewelry($20) which wasn't available locally.

I also purchase all of my groceries locally and during the warm months support with my $$ the local farmers market.

**Shrek** · #23 12/25/11, 11:51 AM

Since WM came to our town in 1989 I mixed my durable/dry goods shopping about equally between them and the independent local furniture/appliance. two clothing stores, one elecrtical/plumping supply store and two hardware stores and local RadioShack with hobbyist parts section.

Although the one independent clothing store closed 11 years ago when the founders widow passed away and this year the owner of the Shack retired and his son relocated for the time being to the town 15 miles south where he lives but still owns the building here with plansto open it again when he finds adequate staff , I travel to his town for my nerd shopping.

As others have stated regardless if I deal with a local merchant or venture into the WM or Lowes that pened here a few years ago, I am helping keep beans in my neighbor's pots and my budget covers a good supply of high quality stuff or marginal quality stuff I can improve on in my home shop.

I have a low grade cheap china made trowel shovel I use in my worm bin room that I bought 9 years or so ago for $1 and with the addition of a salvaged vacuum cleaner extension tube , steel breaker box punch out strip , a screw , two rivets and drilling three holes, I made myself a high grade $15 value American remanufactured using some foreign made parts (the extension tube and rivets were USA made) long handled garden trowel for less than $2 in 30 minutes.

As far as eating out , I split my outings about equally between locally owned eateries and taco Bell, Mickey Ds and such and know most of the owners, workers or their parents at them all from my school days.

So it's all good to me.

hotzcatz · #24 12/26/11, 01:26 AM

Fortunately our town has been spared from the incursion of big box stores. For Christmas this year we got some gifts made by our local saddlemaker. Cellphone holders done up in saddle leather with bronze rivets and tooling. These aren't "home made" they are "hand crafted" since he makes them at the local feed store. Which is more or less a low key hangout for a few guys and they also sell some feed. Nothin' else, just some feed and saddle repair.

We sold a lot of hand spun yarn at the farmer's market as well as as many knitted items as we had made. A few friends and I are starting a small fiber "industry". A few folks raise wool critters, a few of us spin the fiber, others knit the yarn, someone else sells the items.

As for eating out, we usually go to the local burger joint "Village Burger" where they source as much of their stuff locally as possible. http://www.villageburgerwaimea.com/ They may not be the cheapest but we split it between two of us and their burgers are so "ono"! Totally great burgers and you can get wasabi mayo if you ask. Try that at McD's! Also, by getting lunch at village burger we keep all the money in our community. The buy the beef, the buns, the milkshakes, the condiments, etc., locally so that keeps our food producers in business as well. I really want our food producers to do well!

Coloneldad5 · #25 12/26/11, 04:42 AM

Very interesting thread.

I try to buy locally as I can. I have come to learn that buying something of quality that may cost a bit more is a lot cheaper in the long run than buying something cheap at the box store. Now days I look for the quality over price for most everything, and I'll travel a bit further to find it if I have to. For furniture I prefer to find a solidly built one versus the cheap garbage otherwise. I look for tools that will last and not the cheapest ones to do the job.

Now just because it may be a cheaper price 15-25 miles away in the big stores doesn't mean it's cheaper overall, after you factor in the gas to drive there you loose a lot of the savings and so I am encouraged to buy locally first. I also do not care much for some of the things in Wally world and so I'll skip that and go to the local grocery store first, even if I pay a little more.