Tuesday, September 15, 2009

I'm taking up the Challenge!

Yes I am! I am taking up the great challenge Wendy at Surviving the Suburbs will have for the month of October.


Essentially, for one month I will not step foot in a big box store, or chain store that does not serve JUST my region . I will ONLY shop local. I will confess my lapses on Sunday. I will do this because if I shop at a Home Despot then I contribute to the hardship of my local Hardware store in these tough economic times. I will do this because when I shop local, I may pay a little more but I strengthen my community and my local economy. Sometimes, I get better quality which saves me money in the long run.

This is one step in the move to localization that Kunstler and Jeff Rubin say we must do in order to adapt to depletion of resources. I think this is a great challenge for looking at what sorts of things are available from local retailers.

This weeks IDC update will be available later today. We have big news to share also...soo.. I will build the suspense till later today...

3 comments:

Wendy said...

What?!? You have news to share, but you're gonna make us wait? Ugh! I hate waiting ;).

By the way, thanks for taking the challenge, and plugging it on your blog ;).

I was talking with my husband the other day about the challenge, and we realized at about the same time that Goodwill is a chain. I hope we don't need to do any shopping in October ;).

dreaming in maine said...

Ok, I'll take up the challenge! Our grocery store is fairly localized, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue, but I'll go a step further and buy at farmer's markets more.

As for Goodwill, I like to think we can make an exception there. Local people contribute items that I suspect stay in fairly close proximity (since California can't use our snowsuits, I'd wager). Just a guess. What do you think? I might have trouble giving up Goodwill if it is out of the running. I don't shop there often, but it's the first place I go because I like the idea of reusing and recycling items rather than having new ones made all the time.

Fleecenik Farm said...

Yeah, I am having a hard time with the Goodwill thing too. But there also a lot of local thrift stores that benefit local charities I thought I would give a few of my dollars to also.