'A Plea to Shop Locally'

An article from the Arizona Daily Star by Kristen Cook.
Thanks, Ms. Cook and thanks to Cinda Baxter for her work.

You can't hijack the meaning of a word!

I Love Jim Hightower.

No Big Box in Our Town!

Two weeks ago...the city council in Santa Rosa, California, soundly defeated a proposed Lowe's store on a 5-2 vote.
- New Rules Project, Stacy Mitchell Sept. 16, 2009

Despite Lowe's attempts to convince the city council and citizens of the benefits of a store in the area, "local business owners...argued that Lowe's would not bring in new money, but only siphon revenue away from existing businesses, eliminating jobs and shifting wealth out of the community."

I have to say, esp. having visited Santa Rosa recently I am really glad they had the knowledge and ability to stand up for their community. Those smaller communities in Northern California are so unique and special with a home town feeling that I would hate to see disappear.
Having heard the mayor of a nearby town at the BALLE conference speak, I have to say I am not all that surprised. She was very concerned with the preservation of the mom and pop 'industry' in her community and seemed to have a lot of backing from her constituents as well as cooperation from neighboring towns.

I wish we had that level of civic pride and consensus in Tucson. But, we are a lot bigger and have had other challenges during our growth.
The Tucson business community certainly has taken to the Local First movement. In fact, one of the early Tucson supporters of Local First AZ was musing to me recently that he can't hardly believe the Tucson chapter is up to nearly 180 members from just 4 not even two years ago!
My hope for Tucson is that the independent business community gains strength in the next few years. I'd like to see enough options for conscientious consumers that they don't automatically run to a big box store or the mall for the things they need.
Keep up the good work, Tucson indie business community. And, thanks, Tucsonans for supporting the great and growing local business community.
Maybe next time a big box wants to move into town we will have what it takes to just say no.

In Tucson Indie Retailers Aren't So Obscure

Indeed, Amazon has been gobbling e-commerce market share since 2006, taking away customers from eBay in particular. But its advances are shaking up the entire retail world. Giants like Wal-Mart are warily replicating elements of its strategy, while small independent retailers in sporting goods and jewelry now worry their fate will be similar to that of small bookstores and independent video rental shops (remember those?). -New York Times article

Small independent retailers in sporting goods and jewelry in Tucson are not worried about their fates. Perri Jewelers, McGuire's and Marshall's know full well that they offer the consumer a more complete, not to mention personal, experience with free jewelry cleanings and inspection as well as full service repair shops in addition to a wide selection of live goods.
Summit Hut is a favorite place for all manner of outdoors men (and ladies, of course) supplying climbers, esp. with gear for the world class mountain climbing in our area. They carry shoes and tents, hats, backpacks and water bottles and on and on.
Remember small bookstores and independent video rental shops?! We have the BEST independent video rental shop this side of the Mississippi. Casa Video has an excellent selection of indie films as well as the latest hits, foreign films and television shows. And their prices beat any big box video store. Plus, the staff is knowledgeable and helpful.
Then there are the indie bookstores! OMG, three of them got Best Of in Tucson Weekly's latest customer survey. Antigone Books, Bookmans and Mostly Books are only a few of the awesome indie booksellers here. Revolutionary Grounds is a new one. The Book Stop is a great established shop where one can find rare and out-of-print books.
Then there are indie record stores such as Toxic Ranch and Zia. Basically, Tucson has a great indie scene whether you need your diamond ring repaired or a foreign film to rent or outdoor gear or toys or yarn or an art house film or a Chicago-style hot dog or green building materials or . . .
I wanted to write this in response to the NY Times article. The writer made sweeping generalizations that may be true in a statistical sense, but at least here we have a community supporting very good independent businesses. I think enough people value the experience of shopping at a locally owned business that the ones that are really working hard to provide great products and service will be around for a long time to come.

3/50

What is the 3/50 Project? It is a brilliant grassroots campaign to encourage people to keep their money where their home is. It's really easy, folks. Just spend 50 dollars at 3 independent businesses each month (that's $50 total) and YOU will positively impact your community.

Our Hometown Grocer

Bashas' is in the news again. Up 'til now my understanding was that through their bankruptcy and restructuring none of the Tucson stores would close. Today the news reported that two of our Tucson area stores will be closing.
This is very sad. Bashas' is Arizona's largest privately (and locally) owned grocery store. This is Arizona's 12th largest employer. At one time Bashas' was the 2nd largest employer after Walmart! This is an important part of our states economy.
The Bashas' family also lives and participates in our community. They have given countless hours and dollars to charities and on boards.
Please go an extra mile next time you need groceries and seek out a Bashas', Food City or AJs. You will be glad you did.
I shop at Bashas' weekly and find it a very rewarding experience. They have the best customer service of any grocery store I have been to and carry all the regular items I like to buy.
Below is a reprint of a letter Kimber Lanning of Local First Arizona wrote. She has been quite close with the Basha's family and they have been very supportive of her work advocating for locally-owned businesses in Arizona.
Thank you, Bashas', and good luck.

As a proud Arizonan, I was alarmed at Bashas' Chapter 11 filing last week. As our hometown grocer, Bashas' family of stores holds a special place in our hearts. In addition to being one of the biggest contributors to Arizona charities, Bashas' is also the state's 12th largest employer.

I have no doubt Bashas' will emerge from these bankruptcy proceedings a better company, but right now I can not encourage you enough to make the effort to shop locally. This is the time for Arizona to stand up and say enough!

We understand that investing in ourselves is the smartest, most sustainable thing we can do for our communities. In addition to their staff, Bashas' also employs a team of accountants, attorneys, sign makers, web developers and others who live right here in Arizona. Bashas' makes the effort to buy their office products from Wist, another Arizona company, and they have a credit union for their workers, which means more money staying here to be invested.

If you are a service provider of any kind, you know first hand how important it is to have strong Arizona businesses. Out of state corporations, even those operating here among us, do not hire locals for their administrative work, and that includes marketers, graphic designers, promotions people and a whole host of other jobs that are outsourced every day.

We are all in this together. Remember, almost three times more of our money stays here in Arizona when we shop locally, and that money goes to our libraries, our parks, our fire departments.

We are seeking long-term solutions for our great state, and a big part of that is supporting Arizona's own companies. Please take a moment to reflect on a personal story that you have that relates to the Basha family. Perhaps it was the cookies donated to your child's Little League team, or a charity that Eddie's wife Nadine funded. Or, like me, maybe Eddie Basha came to your Coalition for World Peace class at ASU in 1985 and significantly changed the way you thought about the world.

These are hometown folks that need us now. Go the extra mile to reach a Bashas', AJ's, or Food City store near you. Because of your effort, Arizona will be a better place.

Locally yours,

Kimber Lanning
Director
Local First Arizona
(602) 956-0909
www.localfirstaz.com

BALLE Take Two

I wanted to blog with a vengeance from the BALLE conference. Unfortunately that first night I was way too tired. I couldn't form more than a couple semi-intelligent thoughts.
The second night I went out to a local pub, the Yak and Yeti, with a friend. BTW, Troy served me the K2 Dry Rye Stout and it was delicious.
Now I am back in Tucson and beginning to sift through the abundance of information I took in over the weekend. I'll start writing about it by making a list of words I heard over and over:

opportunity
social justice
beneficiary
sustainability
green industry
collaborate
cooperate
wind energy
compassion
love
community
communicate
include
local

Let's think about that for now and I'll leave you with this from David Soul:

One of my beliefs is that there are certain institutions within a community which stand for the spirit and heart of that community

BALLE

I'm in Denver for the 7th Annual BALLE conference. BALLE stands for Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.
This is the meeting of representatives from BALLE networks from around North America. And, there were some people here from France this year. There was a question of BALLE going global. For now, they say, they are focused on this side of the pond. I got the impression, however, that the impetus behind the local movement will not be contained.
During this year's conference there was lots of talk of the green economy. There was a great talk about wind energy from the founder of Windustry.
More to come after sleep.....

New Scene

A Phoenix area blog on the local scene just launched.
Of Local Concern will be one blog of a few in the works that will address more Tucson and Southern AZ local scene issues and news!
We will also address the local movement as a whole and how it effects the economy and more importantly the people in those communities.
I will be attending the 7th Annual BALLE conference next week. Surely that will be informative and inspiring. There are some BALLE networks across the nation that are doing great things for the areas they cover.
Thanks for keeping Tucson unique by supporting the many awesome locally owned businesses in our community. Keep up the good work!