Support Our Local Economy – Made Easy

Last week, Howard Dicus suggested a simple way we can help our local economy:

Is there anything you can do?

There is one really key thing. Look for opportunities to spend money locally. Because our economy is so small, depriving mainland companies of your money will barely be felt by them, but redirecting spending to local firms will have a positive impact here.

As I Tweeted a few days later, to do my small part, I have decided to eat out for lunch every workday.  This is a big deal for me; for years now, I usually take a home lunch to the office, to save money.  Buying a lunch is normally a treat and something I would only do occasionally, maybe once a week.  But if my $7 a day on a plate lunch will help shore up the local economy, I’m all for it.

In my daily consumer decisions, I’ve always tried to frequent and support locally-owned companies like Foodland, Star Market, Down to Earth, and City Mill over their mainland competitors.  Am I alone in this quest?  And where does local loyalty end and irrationality begin?  No matter how much I want to support local, I will not buy an $8 gallon of milk – not when Costco sells it for $4-something.  But I am willing to pay a premium to support local if it’s a few cents more or a small percentage more for the same item.  It helps both the local business and state tax revenues, which are dwindling so fast they are leading to bigger and bigger cuts to services, including Education and our public libraries.

I’ve tried to convince others, including friends, family, and co-workers to join in this effort to do our small part.  While they may not be willing to pay more for groceries or appliances, most are at least open to the idea of eating out for lunch more often.  So, I hope you’ll think about this proposition, and even better, join me in supporting local by eating out.  Now, what’s for lunch and where shall we go?

Mahalo!

Tagged as: Dicus, plate lunch