Buy in the Place That You Live (Now Face North)

Back at Thanksgiving, I pushed Buy Nothing Day, so I guess it's only fair to switch gears and point out Buy Local First Week, which started on Sunday. It's sponsored by the local chapter of the Business Alliance for Local, Living Economies, or BALLE for short. If the name of the event isn't explanation enough, they promote the patronage of local businesses over large national or multinational chains. Local business is part of what gives an area its character, and without them we start to turn into a homogenized mass of nothing. We recently were visiting with an out-of-town friend who'd never been to Chicago before, and he was very enamored with the different neighborhoods and variety of flavors in the city. At one point, though, we went to the movies in an outdoor mall type of area, and he commented (correctly, by the way), that we could be absolutely anywhere in the country. I don't go so far as to say that you should boycott all national chains (though there's that one that I refuse to patronize), but what does it hurt to do buy local first? And you just need to look around your own community to see what it will help.

For a list of events and activities, check out this PDF list. And for readers outside of Chicago, you can read about the larger organization in the United States and Canada, or browse the list of local networks to see if there's one near you.