It's Small Business Saturday again, so it's time for me to report how well American Express's effort to promote local small business is going. If nothing else, WXYZ in Detroit is doing its best to feature the day. Yesterday, the station featured Michigan products sold at Abundant Living in Wyandotte in Small Business Saturday.
Pam Riley from Abundant Living talks about how you'll be supporting the local economy by shopping on Small Business Saturday.Another Wyandotte business, Total Health Foods, was featured this morning in Shop small on Small Business Saturday.
The day after Black Friday is always Small Business Saturday, and you're encouraged to shop small today.Both stores in Wyandotte feature a lot of Michigan foods, which cuts down on fossil fuel use and transportation costs. Not only are the customers shopping locally, the business are, too. Keep up the good work.
when can the self-published authors sell?
ReplyDeleteLike you? Cyber Monday if their books are available online.
DeleteWhile it's great to buy local food (I, in particular, always squizz the fine print on labels here to avoid buying anything that comes from China -- POISON! FAKE! -- in preference for Aussie products) wouldn't it be so much better if there were choices to buy a "made in Michigan" toaster, or shirt, or even a car? Do they still make mackinaws in Mackinac? A quick check of the Oogle machine tells me they do -- for $300.)
ReplyDeleteThe "buy local" ethos seems to be mostly something that applies to yuppies like you and me spending excess money (which we can afford) to purchase things that aren't truly necessary for life. Good on us! But for the poor Schmoe whose budget barely covers survival, which is the majority of Merkins, they're going to go for the cheapest possible thing that keeps them living another day. Welcome to Mall-Wart! And thus does everyone wind up wearing clothing made out of the "bioplastic" that Archdruid Greer mentions in the serialised "Retrotopia" fiction that he's been spooling out for the last couple of months. (You read JMG, right Pinku?) People hate such stuff, but they purchase it because there's no other choice.
Yes, I still read JMG, so I'm familiar with his Retrotopia series. He reads me, too, and used my idea of recovering energy from sewage in one of his installments.
DeleteWe can still buy Made In Michigan cars (that's actually pretty easy here), furniture, washing machines, and dryers along with the Michigan food. My wife was also able to find shirts made in Michigan. So, local manufacturing is still surprisingly healthy. After all, it's the largest sector of the state's economy (tourism and agriculture take turns being second, tourism during expansions and agriculture during recessions).
As for the class issues of sustainability, that's one I encounter from conservatives. They're not wrong; there are elements of snobbery in consuming sustainable products. It's just that I'd take their concern for the working class and poor more seriously if they also helped with increasing their wages and power.