It is true that I live in a small town. I live in one of these small towns who suffer identity issues due to an amalgamation to a bigger city. My husband and kids and I moved here two years ago from what I like to call the 'inner city'. The part of the city that always was 'the city' and not some township. I'm used to bigger populations and therefor bigger thinking as well. There is lots to be said about bigger city living perhaps as much as there is to be said about small town living.
In my small town, the slogan is to shop 'local'. We have one grocery store, one pet food store, one hardware store. We have two coffee shops, several hairstylists' businesses as well as pizzerias. We have one Tim Horton's (I so wish we had another on the other end of the town too!), one Subway and one Mac's Milk......we have one sushi restaurant, one Vietnamese and one Chinese restaurant. We have one Mediterranean, one Italian, two pubs and one burger joint. Most of the businesses are not franchised. The demograph in my small town is mostly upper to middle class. The average middle class home sells for around $700,000+ That is just a 3bdr home.....not waterfront. Waterfront sells for about $1.2,000,000.00+ With that all in mind, I'm sure you'd be guessing by now that shopping locally around here is not going to be cheap! Well, you're right....it isn't.
I was raised to be a prudent shopper. It is not beyond me to drive a few extra miles to save a buck. I like my money and I like it in my pocket, like most of us. I have three dogs. I do purchase the geriatric dog food here in town for nearly $60/bag. The puppies' food I travel a few extra miles to a big box Pet Smart and pay $30 for the same sized bag of puppy chow........here in town, the equivalent would cost about $50/bag. See what I am saying? The grocer, though is a YIG, is priced higher than the bigger box store size YIG, just a few miles down the highway. So between you, me and the fencepost.........I do not shop 'locally' most often. I do however support local services such as hairstylist, butchers, farmers and their markets......you know, the little guy, who actually WILL cut you a deal and mean it too.
To not shop locally means one has to be sort of quiet about great deals that they've found in their travels.....unless it comes from 'the village' itself. It is almost a source of guilt if someone asks where you got such and such an item, and you happen to have purchased it out of the village. You answer, and then wait for that look of disdain before the reply of "Oh? You didn't get it in 'the village'?!" You also NEVER admit that you shop at Walmart either for two reasons: 1)There aren't any designer labels there and 2)There aren't any designer labels there. I purchase clothing for my children wherever I find anything that looks alright and is priced alright. In my own opinion, children's clothing is a big cash suck since the children are continuously growing and changing......Do I really want to spend my money on labels for children that will only be wearing them for about 6mos?! It actually makes alot more sense to use consignment shops for children's clothing for that reason as well. However, where I live we don't even have a consignment shop. That is not to say that it has never been tried......Because of the demographics, we have loads of folks who have lots of great quality clothing to donate but not so many folks who would use consignment.....again, for the same reasons as mentioned above.
What is really cool about being in small community is just that. Community. Never before have I ever experienced this true sense of community. I can bring my son to jujitsu and sit beside my hairstylist (who knows EVERYBODY in town, because she has been cutting hair here for over 20years!), whose children go to the same school as mine (we only have two schools after all, lol!), see other classmates and schoolmates of my children's and hear all about the gossip in town and know of the things, places or persons being discussed. Also makes me be VERY cautious about what I say and to whom........you just never know who knows who around here! In the inner city, you have alot more anonymity. You don't stand out in a crowd as much as you do here.
In my two years of living here, I have learned alot about this community, the people in it and how they think. I'm never so sure that I fit in around here. It reminds me alot of high school actually, except that I am not insecure and don't have this need to fit in either. In fact I have always been a bit of a maverick and well, I guess I still am. I've ruffled feathers here and there with my non conformist ways. I do my own gardening/landscaping, I do not have a nanny, I do not even have a job outside of the house. I do however, volunteer my time to the children and teachers at school as well as the clubs that my children are involved in. I do get involved in the community as a whole by being a good Samaritan........in fact I always have. It is simply just my nature. To most around here, I am a bit of a puzzle. I don't wear designer labels everyday of the week, yet I still look amazing. I raise my children without the aid of a nanny and yet I still smile. I do drive a little further to shop, but at the end of the day I do have more money in the bank.
Sad thing about that though, is that most of the local businesses here are run by people who do not even live in the village.........so really I wouldn't even be supporting a local person, and the profits would be leaving town anyways.......It is just one of the ways this town tries to identify itself and make itself different than it's now bigger city it has become a part of. Funny thing is, people of equal affluence in the inner city don't seem to have to try so hard to be noticed.
In fact, most of them(me) are not trying to be noticed at all.
