Go Check This Out …

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Writing a blog is great — its a platform to engage with readers on issues you think are important.  Writing for more than one blog is not always great.  Nobody knows better than me what it takes to produce a product you can be happy with while dealing with the time limitations inherent in running a small business.

Earlier this year I was fortunate to get involved with the start-up of a great new hyperlocal blog.  Community involvement is close to my heart, so when I was asked to write for a blog focusing on my Capitol Hill neighborhood, I was thrilled.  Washington, DC has some of the “bloggiest” neighborhoods in the country, but there was nothing serving the Hill.  That was back in March 2009, and since then The Hill is Home has taken off!  Writing a weekly column about local businesses and serving on the editorial board of THIH is a great privilege, so that is where I am now focusing my blog time.  Head over and check out some of the fantastic coverage this group of citizen journalists puts together each day!

In the meantime, aside from THIH, Black Lab has been busy with some great projects.  Lately we’ve been supporting a business association’s strategic planning exercise, reworking the content on a dentist’s website and doing some communications and branding for a designer.  Quite the variety of projects but, then again, that’s why we love what we do!  We were also honored to win the inaugural award for Business Volunteer of the Year from CHAMPS, Capitol Hill’s Chamber of Commerce, in November 2009.  Go check our About page for more details and keep an eye out for more news from Black Lab … we’ll be working on a new website once we get a chance to catch our breath.

Buy Local: Week 3 Wrap-Up

The Hill List is your weekly email guide to dining, shopping, and entertainment on the Hill. This list is open to the public. Join: champs@capitolhill.org

Buying Local vs. Buying Locally?

I’ve had this discussion with a few people: is this project about staying in a geographic area or is it about only doing and buying things from local producers? My response is that it is a little bit of both. Over the past three weeks I have proven to myself that I can get (almost) everything I need within my neighborhood. The local producer part is equally about the type of neighborhood I live in — there are many local businesses and few chains — and my personal preferences. There is a 7-11 convenience store about 4 blocks away but I almost never go there. The Johnny’s neighborhood market 2 blocks away has most all of the absolute necessities, and the P&C Market 4 blocks away carries good wines, artisanal cheese, organic beef and Vernor’s ginger ale. Neither of these is open as many days or as late as the 7-11 but I see the owners and managers regularly and when I ask for P&C to check into carrying my favorite flavor of Honest Tea (Peach White Tea, if you’re wondering), I know someone ACTUALLY does look into it. (It’s because their distributor doesn’t carry it — but I’m keeping up my one woman campaign. I noticed they’ve started carrying the Peach Oo-La-Long as a stop gap measure. Thanks guys!)

Truthfully, though, I’m not opposed to chains or big box stores. Consumers can benefit on the price side when a business has the ability to get lower prices from their suppliers because of bulk purchasing. Our TV died a few weeks ago, before my buy local commitment but not so long before that we had a chance to get a new one. When we do finally get a TV, we’ll probably go to Best Buy or Costco. They have lots of options and generally lower prices. They do not offer a pleasant shopping experience or a knowledgeable sales staff. You’re pretty much on your own when you walk in the door, but you go in knowing that will be the case. Oh, and I think its great these places exist, but keep them in the strip malls of Northern Virginia. I do not want one in my neighborhood. I don’t mind the drive, really.

Where this philosophy really does make a difference is impact on the community. In my first post, I mentioned a statistic from the Sonoma County, California buy local program, Go Local First. Their materials say that buying from a locally-owned business rather than chain stores keeps your money circulating 3 times longer in the local economy. Well, okay … It would be my guess that most people who work on Capitol Hill either live in the neighborhood or nearby. It isn’t like downtown DC where people will commute in for a job in a shop. So I have a fairly good chance of keeping some of my money circulating locally by shopping at ANY store in the neighborhood. Well, yes and no. Yes, shopping at the Harris Teeter grocery store means I’m supporting a business that employs many local workers. But the only money that continues to circulate in the economy is wages paid to those workers. Contrast that with picking up some plants at Surroundings at Lincoln Park. The owner of this local shop lives and works here so when you buy something from him, some of the wages he pays continue to circulate in the local economy and, on top of that, so do some of his business’ profits. He makes improvements to his store, he buys personal real estate in the neighborhood, etc. By contrast, all of the profits from Harris Teeter go right back to Matthews, NC and their parent company Ruddick Corporation.

I would by no means consider myself a purist when it comes to this subject. Tradeoffs must be made. I cannot get my favorite cereal at the neighborhood market, nor can I pick up an HD television at the Sunday flea market at Eastern Market. I might be able to get one from the back of a truck at the unSafeway in NE, but that’s a different kind of participation in the economy. I guess I’m just getting a better sense not only of where I draw the line for compromise between local and non-local providers and, at the same time, finding that it is easier than I thought to get what I need by shopping local.

Anybody else been giving this a try? What are you finding?