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.

Today a friend and I had lunch at the Armsby Abbey on Main Street. Not only are they a local business, but on their menu they note all the ingredients that come from area farms.

We didn’t order any food with local ingredients, but my friend ordered a Polar Cola, made (last time I checked) right here in Worcester. (See Buck Paxton’s thread on Polar premium sodas.)

In the evening I stopped by my neighborhood’s great Stone Soup community center to drop off a donation on behalf of another group (not my money), then went to my first class in an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course. MBSR came out of a program at Worcester’s UMass Med School, so it’s a local product, too.

Thanks to all the folks here and at Worcesterite for their suggestions on local sources for winter coats and hard drives.

So far, shopping at local businesses has been easy for some items, impossible for others.

Friday I had lunch at Dalat, a Vietnamese restaurant at 425 Park Ave that’s not listed as local by Worcester Local First but is “local enough for my purposes.”

Then I went grocery shopping at the Artichoke Food Coop on Main Street, where I picked up apples, garlic, ground cherries, a pepper (most of this from Vermont), bok choy, tempeh, chips, salsa, canned tomatoes, and a frozen loaf of bread. The Artichoke is about as local as it gets, selling locally-grown food whenever possible, sometimes even food grown at urban gardens within walking distance!

Saturday I went to a little festival in Hardwick where I donated money to a couple groups but didn’t do any shopping. And on Sunday I stopped by the Artichoke for a snack, as well as throwing a couple bucks in the collection plate at my church. I had dinner at the Catholic Worker (also local) and noticed that Park Print is so proud of belonging to Worcester Local First that they have the logo on their labels:

Today, Monday, I’ve decided I need a new winter coat and a couple external hard drives, none of which I think I can buy at locally-owned stores. I’d also like to buy some cheap specialty vitamins. Normally I would order this online, or stop by a mall. What to do?

I decided to try something smaller: a week of shopping locally.

Beginning Friday, October 3, and continuing for seven days, I won’t spend any money except at Worcester businesses. This includes shops certified by Worcester Local First as well as places I’ve confirmed to be locally-owned.

Wish me luck.

Map of Worcester Local First members

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