Its time for the rule-sy post
The days are truly flying by. It has been 6 days since my official experiment has started, one year buying only from locally owned businesses. To this point it has been a breeze, I have bought almost nothing (its easy when the pocketbook is limited!), so far a couple of grocery items from my place of work NOWBC – an online farmers market that is cooperatively owned! I have also ventured down to the East End Food Coop, another cooperatively owned business, really great stuff!
But I feel like I need to further define this venture, as it won’t be much fun if I don’t have at least some set of rules to follow. I have also chosen to rule-ify the blog, so I make sure to keep on top of it, and hopefully make it somewhat enjoyable to read.
I will try to come back and update these rules as they need updating, but for now, here are the basic rules:
1. 80% of all purchases to be made in my community – Burnaby, BC. It is so important to me to support our local businesses, and especially the business owners in my own community. I would imagine a great majority of Burnaby business owners are also Burnaby residents who really deeply care for the city they live in. If I am going to sacrifice my dollars, they should be going to these people.
2. Remaining 20% of purchases will be bought from local businesses owned in the city I am visiting. This sounds convoluted, but i feel the idea is sound. We have seen a shopping revolution – online shopping now account for a huge percentage of our purchases. I still think it is great to support the small businesses online (and I am starting to accumulate a bunch of great ones which I will share), but my thought is that if I spend my money outside of my community, or one I am visiting, it is gone forever. The chance of my dollar spent in California ever returning to Burnaby are slim to none. Maybe the rule should state ‘no online shopping.’ My hope is that I can get Burnaby businesses to support some of the great online retailers, bringing their product into their store! More to come on that.
3. I will do all that I can to develop a local currency in Burnaby. Local currencies have seen success across North America. These are non-interest bearing moneys meant to be spent at local businesses, but also with our local residents, each with their own unique set of skills, which leads to Rule 4.
4. I will learn new skills by hiring ‘local experts’ – I have always lived by the words ‘learn how to do something useful, or at least know someone who can’. To this point in my life I have lived on the ‘know someone who can’ side of the equation. This year I hope to change that. I am also very keen to start a skill sharing group (closely tied to the Local Currency)
5. Blog Rule #1 – I will blog on an important topic relevant to the local economy each and every Friday. These will be issues that I think are important, and hopefully issues that will come to light as I participate in the experiment. I would also love to hear your issues, concerns and questions. I am no expert, but I do hope to learn much about developing strong local economies as I delve further into the issues.
6. Blog Rule #2 – I will do my best to feature great local businesses. I will try to feature a new local biz every two weeks (and hopefully more often as we move forward). This is going to be the toughest / most rewarding part of the experiment, toughest because I have always found it hard to build relationships (I’m a pretty shy guy), but rewarding because I am sure these stories will be uplifting and inspiring!
Let’s leave it at that for now. I need to work on writing in a more concise manner, and I apologize for these first posts, my hope is I will grow as a writer, and Dec. 2012 look back on these posts with a sigh.
hmm…I live in New West and prepare food for sale in Coquitlam. Does that leave me out? I live 2 blocks from Burnaby. How strict are your rules?
Melisa
Hey Melisa, thanks for the post! My rules aren’t that strict, especially if you mean food from Vancouver Natural Gourmets (and the yummy kale chips!). I would be more than happy to speak to you about your biz, and hopefully promote you all on the website, especially once I develop (with any luck) a small following…