The final two days of Shopping Locally
by Mike - October 9, 2008 7:29pm
Wednesday I (once again) stopped by the Artichoke co-op for a snack before work. After work, I got a snack at Ed Hyder’s, a great little market on Pleasant Street. Note that this was the first actual Worcester Local First business I patronized this week.
Ed Hyder’s profile from Worcester Love:
There’s a nice little park that’s opened across the street from Ed Hyder’s, just begging for you to have a picnic there.
After my snack I went to the nearby HBML Junk Shoppe to volunteer. The place serves up all sorts of Worcester junk and art, and (some days) seems more like a community center than a place of business. If you’ve never been there, give it a try–within two minutes you’ll know if it’s up your alley or not. Personally, this is the only Worcester store where I’ve had a truly excellent retail experience.
The first internet video about HBML, by Nicole Belanger and Mike Benedetti:
The latest HBML video, by Joe DeGeorge:
I found a meditation chime with a pharmaceutical ad on it, and since I just started a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course, I bought it.
Thursday I had lunch at the delightful Jamaican place One Love Cafe on Main Street. I think they may be a Worcester Local First location, but they’re not (yet) in the business guide. One reason I like them is that, because of the whole rasta/ital influence, they have plenty of satisfying vegan items. (Plenty of meat, too.)
Afterwards I stopped by the Artichoke again. I told a guy about my “Week of Buying Locally,” and he said that he’d like to buy some jeans from a local store. There are plenty of little trendy/”urban” clothing stores in Worcester, but I don’t know if they have the sorts of jeans he’d want, or the sort of winter coat I’d want. If one of these stores had a sign like “Organic,” “Fair Trade,” or “We Cater to the Middle-Aged” in the window, I’d take a look.
I’ve been wanting to buy a hard drive this week, so I followed an Internet tip and visited Technical Computer Solutions. They don’t have much in stock, and said they mostly do repairs.
What did I learn in this Week of Shopping Locally? Mostly that it’s easy to buy food from local businesses. If I’d wanted more than the Artichoke stocks, it would have been easy to stop into any of the Asian or Latino supermarkets on my way.
I also realized that most of my non-local shopping isn’t at chain stores in Worcester, it’s online. Except for a few items like fresh produce, hot meals, and visionary junk, it’s hard for a bricks-and-mortar store to compete with the price, convenience, selection, and lack of sullen clerks on the Internet.
Mike Benedetti was born in Glen Dale, West Virginia, and is an Eagle Scout.