Posts Tagged ‘shop local’

After Christmas Sales

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Dan and I just got back from our after Christmas sales shopping sprees. We went to our two favorite clothing stores in town. For me, it’s Orange Blossom, a wonderful women’s boutique with stylish clothes, great service, and great sales. For Dan, it’s The Town Squire, a traditional men’s clothing store conveniently located two doors down from Orange Blossom with high quality clothes and incredible customer service.  (They wrapped all of my Christmas presents for Dan when I shopped there before the holidays, which was such a time saver, and the presents looked so much better than anything I can do).

We are now past our one year mark for our unchained living experiment, but we have both vowed – to different degrees – to keep shopping unchained. So we decided to check out the after-Christmas sales at each of these clothing stores. We went our seperate ways to see what we could find.

Shopping in Orange Blossom is always a delight to the senses and so relaxing!

Shopping in Orange Blossom is always a delight to the senses and so relaxing!

Of course, one of the things we get asked the most is, “Don’t you spend more by not buying in places like T.J. Maxx, Target, or Marshall’s for your  clothes?  What I’ve found is that the answer is “yes” — and “no.” Usually, I wait until stores like Orange Blossom and The Town Squire have their sales, and then I’m paying the same as I would at a place like Target.The “yes, I pay more” is the times I’ve gone and splurged for a dress for our annual Gala — but it’s worth it to me because I know that I have a one-of-a-kind dress that no one else in the community will be wearing that night.

But to me there’s more than just the price of the clothes that have changed the way I do my shopping for clothing. I shop locally, usually during the sales, because:

  • I’m getting much higher quality clothes that will last much longer.
  • I’m not pawing through crowded racks in dirty, uncomfortable stores like T.J. Maxx or Marshall’s hoping to find something (usually trying on 20 items in a dingy fitting room just to find one that might fit, is still in good shape, or is still in style).
  • My shopping experience is extremely pleasant in a lovely store.
  • I have attentive and highly knowledgeable staff who are there helping me every step of the way to make sure I look good when I walk out the door, that the clothes fit, and that I have a great experience,
  • And –best of all — I’m keeping my dollars local.

So how did I do today? I found three things at Orange Blossom.

  • A pair  of $44 shorts that were marked down 75% to $11
  • A gorgeous rust colored pullover that went for $97 that was marked down 75% to $24.25
  • A fun (and warm) green sweater that went for $76 that was marked down 50% to $38
Pat Fuller, the Orange Blossom owner (in white) and her wonderful staff!

Pat Fuller, the Orange Blossom owner (in white) and her wonderful staff!

Total purchase before tax was $73.25. Pre-sale these three items would have cost me $217, so I saved a whopping $144! I feel I got a great deal on three high-quality items, had a great chat with the wonderful ladies at Orange Blossom, and now have some new clothes to show off.

So, how did Dan do? We have just begun shopping at Town Squire for Dan. During Christmas I purchased a pair of pajamas, a sweater on sale for $25 (marked down from $185), and two high-quality summer jerseys on sale also for $25 (marked down from $85). Dan really liked his purchases, but needed to return the pajamas which were too big. True to form, the customer service was great. Turns out that large bottoms had been inadvertently been put in with a medium top so they exchanged it and got him fixed up right away.

Today, Dan was looking for dressier pants to wear when we are going out and some new belts. The belts he bought weren’t on sale, but he found two nice ones. The pants he found were selling originally for $75 each, but get both both pair for $95. Dan’s savings included a $10 off coupon we had, so he saved $75. The pants are being hemmed now and one needs to be taken in a bit. The folks at The Town Squire do the alterations them selves, which costs less than the local seamstress we usually go to.

While I was waiting for Dan to try the pants on, I spoke with the owner, Larry McDaniel. Larry has owned the shop for 35 years — ever since he was 24! Now that’s amazing in this day and age. He’s technically been in the clothing business even longer, having worked in clothing stores since he was 14. Obviously this man knows men’s clothing, which is no doubt how he continues to stay in business when so many men are shopping in chains. I do know he does a booming business in tux rentals for proms, weddings, and formal occasions.

You probably have a few locally owned clothing stores in your town — either one’s like The Town Squire, which have been around forever, or like the Orange Blossom, which might be a few years old or new. Please be sure to consider shopping there. If you’re looking for deals, watch for when your independently owned stores have sales. You will be pleasantly surprised that your local stores can match the prices of the discount stores –  but beat the discount stores every day on quality, costumer service, and ease of shopping.

And you will keep your money in your town helping local people instead sending it somewhere far away to be banked by the faceless corporate executives who run the local big box stores in your town.

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Shop Local – Support Cleveland’s Montessori Kinder

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Kinder 2Wow! What a great concept. Between the dates of November 14 and November 21 if you shop  at the following locally owned stores in Cleveland you will not only get a discount on your purchase, but that discounted amount will be donated by the store to Montessori Kinder International School! Awesome! We all know how important it is buying local.  Your money stays in the community, rather than going to corporate headquarters. You’re keeping local people you know in business. And in this instance you’re supporting a local charity through your shopping. Buying local is the way to go.

Brigitta culture campNow I know first hand what great work our local Montessori does for children. This summer, the Museum Center where I work co-hosted a week-long Culture Camp with the local Mosaic Center and the folks who run the Montessori School. It was a wonderful week of cultural immersion of the fifty some children who attended. They learned the languages, foods, and customs of many countries in such a wonderfully supportive learning environment. And that is what Montessori is all about.

MontessoriSo now is your chance to help the local Montessori, support local businesses, and get a discount in the process. I’m there! Check out these great stores that are part of the Shop Local campaign!

To get your discount simply mention you wish to support the Cleveland Montessori and sign the merchant form at checkout. That’s all you have to do to shop local!
Shop Local Merchant’s List:

  • The Wild Bird Center: 15% seed/20% Other
  • The Wellness Store: 20% off reg.price items and gift certificates
  • Creative Customs: 10%
  • Scott’s Bicycle: 3-5%
  • Café Roma Gift Certificate: $10 for $50 & $20 for $100
  • The Bald Headed Bistro: Gift Certificates $20 for $100 & $50 for $200
  • Perry’s Petals: 15%
  • Capital Tires: $5 per tire michelin/ bf goodrich brands
  • Stamper’s Furniture: 5%
  • Happy Tails: $5 of Gift Certificate, 15%
  • Orange Blossom Boutique: 10%
  • Paisleys: 20%
  • Guppies: 20%
  • Studio D: 10%
  • Annabelle Ink: 10%
  • Caldwell Paving: negotiated at time of contract
  • Accent Mark: 10%
  • Berrywood Aesthetics: 10%
  • Tako Yaki Restaurant: min. 15%
  • Your Kids Closet: tba
  • Baskin Robbins Ice Cream: min. 10%
  • Yummy Restaurant: 35%
  • Season’s Harvest Market tba
  • Southern Traditions: tba
  • Carrie Workman Photography: 50% of sessions fee booked 11/14 – 11/21
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A Saturday of Shopping in Independent Stores

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

Saturday was a typical errand day for me, just like a lot of women in America. Off work and that means I have lots of shopping errands to complete. But my shopping experience is about as different as it gets from the average American housewife who spends her bucks in chain stores and may never step foot in a locally owned store in her town.

P1010169

There are always flowers in bloom around the entrance and Caspar the cat's grave is just to the left (overlooking the CVS drivethrough -ha!).

Here’s how my day went. Out the door and my first stop after the bank was to our locally owned pharmacy. In our town of Cleveland, we are lucky to have three independently owned pharmacies. Pretty amazing! We have shopped at The Medicine Shoppe since we arrived, after one of my museum staff members recommended this amazing pharmacy.

Run by Endo, a Japanese immigrant who is the pharmacist and owner, this is truly the most special pharmacy we’ve ever done business with! Medicine Shoppes are franchises. But we decided at the beginning of our experiment that IF the franchise does not force the owners to have their stores all look the same and follow cookie cutter practices, that these are locally owned stores as far as we were concerned.

P1010172

Endo with one of his helpers

And boy does this pharmacy not look like any pharmacy you’ve ever visited. When you walk in you are greeted by a warm and inviting space that has:

  • A grand piano
  • Photos of Endo’s family on the wall along with other personal mementos
  • Two cushy sofas
  • A coffee table with his family photo album, a fish tank

Until recently a regal white cat named Casper would greet you as you can in. Sadly, though, Casper passed away a few weeks ago and is lovingly buried outside the front entrance.

Endo and his great staff of young college-age men and women always greet you by name when you enter (or drive up at the drive through). They know all about us and ask after our family, how work is going, and truly care about us. We, in turn, care about them. On my recent visit I saw a picture of Endo’s grandson in California and photos of Erica’s new baby boy who was born just about the time that Casper the cat was put to sleep in Endo’s arms at the vet’s. I defy anyone to have these exchanges with the staff at a CVS or Rite Aide!

Endo and some of his personal items!

Endo with some of his personal items

And yes, you can get your generic drugs just as cheaply at Endo’s store as at the chain pharmacies. But sadly, as a small mom-and-pop store, he struggles to survive against the big chain drug stores that are on every street corner in Cleveland. They can advertise their cheap drugs, and so people think he doesn’t offer them as inexpensively. And several years after opening his store, the people who sold him the land on which to build his store turned around and sold the adjoining land to a CVS! Ouch! He hangs in there because his customers are loyal to him and their word-of-mouth advertising keeps him in business.

If I need pills at any time of day — 24-7 — Endo will meet me at the pharmacy and fill the order for an emergency. I have his home phone number and can call him there. Do any of you have the home phone number of your CVS pharmacist? I don’t think so! This is true service and what the old-fashioned local pharmacists used to be like. Endo is the kind of pharmacist I want to dispense life-giving drugs to me and my family.

P1010176After leaving Endo’s, my next stop was our local health food store, Abundant Living. I try toshop here first to get as much as I can. On this visit I stopped and spoke with one of the owners, Dave Carringer, about our year of shopping unchained. He filled me in a bit on Abundant Living’s own belief in shopping locally. They buy all their office supplies and paper products from local vendors, even though they may pay a bit more for them.Joe Rodgers Office Supply was one supplier he mentioned. Dave said that as a small, locally owned business, he understood how hard it was for all of them to stay in business and he would much prefer to keep his money local. I bet our local chain grocery store doesn’t buy locally.

Dave at Abundant Living

Dave at Abundant Living

Dave then went on to say that Abundant Living tries hard to donate back to the community for the many needy causes in the area. Like most locally owned stores, he generously gives a larger percentage of donations to the community than big-box stores ever do. Why? Because he and all the other citizens who own locally owned stores live in their communities and care about them. And because their stores aren’t owned or controlled by some far-off corporation, they don’t have to send their profits off to corporate headquarters. A big-box store may participate in some charitable giving in the community, but it is a small token of the amount of profits that they send off to corporate headquarters.

The grain bins at Abundant Living

The grain bins at Abundant Living

Abundant Living has a very nice selection of organic products, produce, supplements, and beauty aids. The staff are very helpful and friendly. True to form, like a small mom-and-pop store, the service is excellent and after you’ve left you feel as if you’ve shopped with family not strangers.

Dave must have read my blog right after I left the store because I came home to a nice email from him. He saw where I’m only eating meat from local sources and wrote this about local beef and chicken they sell:

Now I drive to Fort Payne AL. and get our meat from Teddy Gentry at Bent Tree Farms. His beef (Burts Beef by name / his Grandfather) is 100% free range, grass fed, no hormones, steroids, chemicals, or vaccinations of any kind. Next time you’re in I’ll give you a pack to try. He has a great farm and is actually the spokesperson for the S.E. Grassfed Beef Association. He’s been doing it for about 20 yrs. in addition to being the bass player for the Alabama Band. We also get our chicken from the Amish farms, again, with no nasty chemicals added, all free range.

I’ll let everyone know how the beef is in a future blog. Hey, if the owner is a member of the Alabama Band I’m sure he’s got good beef!

CookesOn from the health food store to our locally owned grocery store, Cookes. In business since the 1940s, Cooke’s is owned by the Cooke family who also own Seasons Harvest, as well as several chains such as our local Panera Bread and several regional stores of the Save-A-Lot chain grocery. So, it’s an interesting family that blends the local with the chain, but I have to say that they’re definitely interested in their local community because of all the donations they make. The Cooke family is one of the most generous families in the community in supporting many causes, and they employ many local people in all their stores.

We have shopped now at Cooke’s for the duration of this experiment. It’s been fine shopping there, but I have to admit that at times its a bit frustrating. The store is small and the selection a bit limited. Occasionally, when we’ve gone into a Bi-Lo or a Publix, either with a friend or on the very rare occasions when we HAD no other choice, we’ve felt an interesting combination of being both overwhelmed with to many choices and also somewhat giddy. So there is a yin and a yang.

As consumers, I think we are now bombarded with too much choice in grocery stores today. How many types of a garbage bags do we need? But then again, after being so limited in choice for a year, when we do walk into these stores its almost like Christmas. More on this in a later post.

P1010181Cooke’s is our mainstay grocery store, but for specialty items, especially our Blue Smoke Coffee, we head to Seasons Harvest. This week at Seasons Harvest, I picked up Dan’s favorite bacon, their deli Blazing Buffalo chicken for lunches, some organic chips, and my favorite quick on-the-go-lunch: sushi. Seasons Harvest is the only place in town where I can get sushi in a grocery store like this. Ironically, while driving away and listing to NPR, NPR the had a program on why you shouldn’t eat sushi and other fish from the ocean. (Sorry, I can’t find the link to it.) It was pretty touching stuff to hear as I was plopping one piece of tuna after another into my mouth. Sigh.

Our new video store!

Our new video store!

But I was cheered when out of the corner of my eye I spied a sign that I’ve driven by literally hundreds of times but it never registered – Corner Video II. With a squealing of breaks, I quickly turned into the nondescript shopping center and pulled up to a tiny hole-in-the-wall video store and though to myself, “We’ve been going with out new release videos since January and this has been here all along?” With a sigh, I got out and went inside hoping that this was not some tiny chain.

Certainly the interior, about the size of an over-sized closet, gave no impression of a chain. But I’ve been fooled before. A woman and man were conversing at the counter so I browsed and found a video I’ve wanted to see, Marley and Me, and headed to the check out. The gentleman left, and as I filled out the forms for a new card I asked the woman about the store.

Yes, she was the owner, and no, it wasn’t a chain. She said she was really struggling to stay in business since the Red Boxes had begun appearing outside of Walmart. These kiosks rent movies for $1.00 and charge no late fees. I guess they are the latest in convenience and cost savings for those looking for that type of thing. She’d owned the business for seventeen years and managed the store for four before that. What bothered her was that she’d watch the children of our first customers grow up to become her customers and they were the ones now abandoning her for the Red Box videos. I said it was a shame that they didn’t care they were putting her out of business. Her response was “All they care about is convenience and price.” She was now renting her videos for a mere 99 cents.

I have to say she hasn’t sat back and just rung her hands, though. Besides the videos, she’s branched out into tanning beds, slushies, sodas, jewelry, and even lottery tickets. So you have to give her credit for trying to keep the business alive! I’d be curious to know if any of you out there have locally owned video stores? It would be great to support them if you do!

With that, I headed home secure in knowing that I kept my dollars local and helped quite a few local business owners stay in business. Do you make an effort to shop locally? Tell us about it if you do!

The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy
2414 N. Ocoee Street
Phone: (423) 746-1919
Fax: (423) 476-1902

Hours:
Mon.: Fri.: 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
Sat.: 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Corner Video II
5004 Georgetown Rd. NW
(423) 472-313
Hours: 1:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. daily

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Our Day at the Nashville Farmers Market

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

This is how I know we’ve changed over the last ten months of our experiment of not shopping or eating in chains.

Dan has been bugging me to go to Nashville on one of his rare weekend days off and we finally hit a day when we both didn’t have work commitments. Since I’ve been to Nashville many times, I said, “Go to their tourism website and decide what you want to do.” I figured we would end up at one or two museums like we always do. But guess what? Dan’s first choice was to go to their Farmers Market held downtown on Bicentennial Mall Park. Then, if we had time, we’d go to Andrew Jackson’s home, the Hermitage. Yep, that’s right. My husband and I, both museum people spending the day at the Farmers Market and IF we have time going to a historic house museum. Oh, the times they are a changing.

So off we drove on an overcast, chilly fall day north to Nashville. After a few wrong turns we finally found the Farmers Market that has nice, though not ample, on-site parking. We arrived pretty early thanks to the change from Eastern Standard to Central Standard Time. The Nashville Farmers Market was huge compared to our Chattanooga Farmers Market.

The Chicago Gyro Shop

The Chicago Gyro Shop

Our first order of business, however, was lunch! The food court at the farmers market had a lot of “fast food”-type vendors to choose from. Most of the vendors sold ethnic food. We had our pick of Indian, Cajun, Chinese, and, of course, Barbeque. Since reading Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, I am now a vegetarian when eating out. If I don’t know where the meat comes from, I’m not eating it thank you! So, while Dan opted for the Gyro plate, I had a Spinach pie plate, which really turned out to be tabouli in pita bread. Still, my meal was good.

Here’s what we purchased:

  • Red Delicious apples
  • A pumpkin
  • Butter and egg noodles
  • Pork
  • Lamb
  • Veggies

Red Delicious Apples

NasMkt06A simple stand that held a few baskets of Red Delicious apples caught our attention. The apples came from Stewart Orchard in Ashland City, TN, which is just outside of Nashville. Talk about buy local! Tatum, the farmer at the stand, told us that his booth was the only one selling apples grown locally in Tennessee. The other vendors were selling apples brought in from North Carolina and Georgia.

Mmmmm. North Carolina and Georgia. Tatum’s words helped us look a bit more closely at who the vendors were at the market and how difficult it can be sometimes to buy local produce at a Farmers Market. Some of the vendors were actually “resellers” and when we looked at their booths we saw they were some what like grocery stores selling vegetables! Just because your at a Farmers Market doesn’t mean it will be local! That was our first lesson of the day.

Pumpkins

NasMkt09Next on the list was the ever important pumpkin! I’d purchased one a few weeks ago at the Saturday Farmers Market in Cleveland on Peerless Road (no website), but it had rotted and we needed one for the impending holiday. The pumpkins from Swafford Farm caught our eye. They had over 60 varieties of pumpkins, in all shapes, sizes, and colors, that they raise on their Pikeville farm. Obviously, finding a pumpkin wasn’t going to be a problem! I ended up picking out 6 tiny ones for inside the house – 3 orange and 3 white – and one large one for the porch.

Butter and Egg Noodles

After a quick trip to the car to unload our heavy loot and to tick off the long line of drivers wanting our parking spot at the farmers market. (Sorry, you should have come earlier!) Then we headed back to buy more produce.

That’s when we hit pay dirt.

We noticed a nice young Amish couple who run Schrock Family Bakery. Unfortunately, we didn’t buy any of their mouth-watering pies. But we did buy a 1-pound tub of fresh butter and homemade noodles made from the eggs and wheat flour off their farm, which is located in Wildersville, TN. If you want to buy local noodles, you can’t get any more local ones then these. We have since tried them with a Ratatouille dish I made with the eggplant I bought. Yum! The noodles were so much better than store bought!

The butter I’ve also tried many times and its delish. It turns out, though, that the butter isn’t theirs, but comes from Rock Springs Dairy, which also is in Wildersville. So the butter is still locally made. The only ingredients in the butter are cream and salt.

For those of you who turn your noses up at eating real butter, we are now convinced it’s better for us than eating the processed margarine we were brought up on. We were led to believe eating margarine would help us “reduce” our weight and be more healthy — but it turns out it doesn’t. In fact, margarine is less healthy than butter.

You’re not convinced butter is better for you? Here’s just one of the many sites where you can read up on the new findings about the butter-vs.-margarine debate. The fact that even Dan, who has battled high cholesterol all his life, has switched a is major development. Now granted, we aren’t taking this butter and slathering it on everything in sight. We use it in moderation — though the taste of this butter sure makes it hard to do so!

Pork

On our next stop at the farmers market, we bought some pork. We had a great chat with Charles and Carla Scalf of Garrett Farms Beef in Cookeville, from whom we purchased chops and a roast.

But now it turns out that we learned another lesson about how to shop local and buy local. What’s the lesson? That we still haven’t learned to ask enough questions — or the right questions — about what it is we’re buying.

We bought pork chops and a pork shoulder from them. But while researching this blog, I found no evidence on their website or in their brochure that they don’t raise hogs. I emailed them to see what’s up and here’s their response. While it seems like it would be obvious that someone who is selling meat would have raised it, maybe not?

Thanks for your purchase. I hope you are enjoying your meat. We do not raise the pork on our farm. we do have someone else to raise our hogs for us. We do check the quality and do slaughter by our slaughter house and are as concerned about the quality as you are. We are very careful in who we get our meats from.

We were disappointed. We really have no idea how these pork were raised or by whom. We do know the Garret Farms people use R&D Slaughter House in Dunlap which is what all the small farmers use around here. But that’s all we know about this pork. We are now going to be way more thorough in our questions with producers we don’t know.

Lamb

NasMkt10Our next purchase at the farmers market I’m more sure and happy about. We bought lamb for lamb kabobs from Chigger Ridge Ranch. John and Debbie raise lamb and rabbits on their farm in a sustainable manner. When you buy local from them you know you’re buying truly local, grass fed meat.

John and Debbie’s website is great. It gives you the feeling that they know what they are doing with their animals and that they care deeply for them. I’m looking forward to the Middle Eastern dish that Dan will prepare with the lamb!

Veggies

pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!

pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!

Final stop – veggies. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the farmer we bought our veggies from, but we stocked up on eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes, and my new southern favorite – okra. Laden down we waddled to our car to free our space up for the next happy shopper.

It’s so much more fun to shop local and buy local at a Farmers Market than to shop in a grocery store.

With all produce in the trunk and the frozen meat packed up carefully in the cooler so it would stay frozen, we headed for a short visit to the Hermitage and then home.

By the way, while we were at the farmers market we picked up Nashville’s totally cool magazine, Local Table, which is devoted to local food. Oh, to live in a town so hip! The magazine’s web site is a great resource, an and you can enjoy the web site even if you don’t live near the Music City.

I hope you enjoyed our tour of the Nashville Farmers Market. Remember. Remember: Shop Local and Buy Local!

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