STL Shop Local 365+: traveling locally

Monday, May 30, 2011

traveling locally

It is something of a paradox but this is what I will be doing for the next week: traveling south to Arkansas and Texas searching for hidden local treasures. It is not St. Louis but it is local and it is fun. Since finding computer access is proving impossible please check back in next week to hear about our wonderful discoveries.

This guy is Shelley. Check back in for some great stories about this wonderful character and the fantastic food we had at his restaurant.

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A New Year, A New Look

It has been a year... a year of shopping, learning, meeting, and discovering; a year of new people, places, and routines; a year of sheer delight that I could never have anticipated when the adventure began March 1st, 2011. I've found it IS possible to shop economically and conveniently at smaller locally owned shops. What started as curiosity has concluded with deeper understanding and a commitment to a way of life. The independence of self-owned businesses seems to foster happier more creative people,which makes a better world for all of us. So let's continue, I can't think of a single reason to go back to the box stores, boring chains and internet.

About Jo

Hi, my name is Jo-Ellen McDonald. I like small stores, I truly do, though for years I've rarely shopped in them. I don't know why, really. I guess I was thinking it is more convenient and less expensive to shop in the big mega stores, and that someone else supported those little stores I liked so much.

Or was I thinking at all? Probably I was just doing what everyone else does.

This year I'm living differently. For 365 days I'm going to shop for goods and services only at local, independently owned businesses. I just want to try it. Will it be outrageously expensive? Or demand so much time as to be impossible to maintain? I don't know. But I want to try, because a lot of those little stores that I liked so much are gone, and I think that is pretty sad.

Some days there will simply be a quick journal entry, other days will feature a particular small business.

So come along with me and let's see what there is to learn this year. About the joys and struggles of small business owners. About whether or not there is a local place to buy computer ink cartridges or a broom. About how maybe we have saved a little in time and money but have lost too much in humanity and community.

STL Shop Local 365+