Carrie Rollwagen - The Localist

The Localist :

Think Independent, Buy Local,

and Reclaim the American Dream

Copyright 2014 by Carrie Rollwagen

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, visit www.carrierollwagen.com .

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The Localist : Think Independent, Buy Local and Reclaim the American Dream

/ Carrie Rollwagen

ISBN 978-0-692-31948-2

ISBN 978-0-692-31949-9 (electronic)

1. The main category of the book Biography & Autobiography Other category. 2. Business & Economics. 3. Small Business. I. Rollwagen , Carrie. II. The Localist .

First Edition

Book design by Andrew Thomson

Cover design by Andrew Thomson

Ebook design by Jonathan Walls

Editing by Bobby Watson

To Courtenay, who first showed me that my blog could be a book: None of this wouldve happened without you.

To Susan, who makes my writing better by always telling me the truth, and to Michael, whose unwavering support gives me the strength to keep creating.

And to Elisa and Anna, who remind me that fighting for a better world is pretty bad-ass.

A few years ago, I fell down a rabbit hole. Like Alice before me, I stumbled into a different world almost accidentally, and I found my worldview growing and shrinking and shrinking more and growing all over again. When I started exploring what it means to buy local, I fell into a sort of Wonderland that spun me past new people, economic theory, different ways to think about money, and a new twist on patriotism. Everything I did changed: from drinking coffee to eating biscuits to taking walks. Like Alice, I got some wise counsel. Like her, I also met some weirdos .

This book is about small shopping, but its also about my personal journey. I tried to write a book based on facts and figures, but they kept twisting themselves into doom and gloom. A book filled with pessimistic statistics wasnt one I wanted to write, and I doubt its one you want to read, so what follows is more story than stats, more philosophy than flowcharts. This book certainly has a strong foundation of fact, but its told through the prism of my own story and adventures in local shopping.

Sometimes this means connecting a big concept about macro-economics to a random story from my childhood. Sometimes I write a whole lot about Starbucks (because thats where I worked) and about Birmingham (because thats where I lived). Sometimes it means sharing my own journey and the stories of the people Ive met along the way my own personal Mad Hatters and White Rabbits. In these instances, Ive done my best to be faithful to the truth and to be fair to every person (but for wherever my memories are fuzzy, I offer apologies).

Ive loved this shop small journey, and Ive hated it, and Ive both hoped that it wouldnt end and wished for it to be over. But Im unequivocally honored to be able to write about it, and Im so grateful that youre joining me for this story.

The Localist

Do you want the job done right or do you want it done fast?

Well, like all Americans fast!

The Simpsons

Lets get this out of the way at the beginning: Im not here to shame anybody. Ive been pretty committed to shopping locally for about four years. Im writing a book about it. That means Americas small shops are important to me, but it doesnt mean I think theyre perfect or that corporations are always bad. I like to save money and time as much as anybody else, and I dont think thats a bad thing.

I dont shop at Wal-Mart, but that doesnt mean Im not tempted by those smiley-face-emblazoned falling prices. Im not particularly lazy or selfish (maybe thats debatable), but I love walking into a mall, feeling the rush of the air-conditioned and perfumed air, and thinking the answer to my problems just might be at the other end of a credit card swipe. It feels like Target, Anthropologie and Whole Foods really get me, and shopping there makes me feel happy. Maybe that feeling is shallow, but sometimes a temporary thrill is better than nothing.

Enjoying the benefits of big box shopping isnt anything to feel guilty about; those reasons we hear for shopping locally mom-and-pops are nicer, small shops have better service, we miss the good old days of Main Street and Mayberry dont even turn out to be true much of the time. We arent Mayberry, but we shouldnt be (our world isnt perfect, but America is at least less overtly racist and misogynistic than it was when Sheriff Andy was in charge). We love convenience, and we love saving money. We like that corporations can make us feel included and special. Are there reasons to choose independents over corporations? Spoiler alert: I think there are. But the idea that small shops are heroic and corporations are evil isnt one of those reasons.

We hear a lot of rhetoric saying that local shops are more authentic than big box stores, but what does that even mean? If corporations are better at giving us what we want, maybe that actually makes them more authentic than the indies . The world has changed: Technology has made speed not only a possibility but an expectation. A recession has left us with less expendable income. We like the way big box stores echo these changes: Its nice to be able to pull off the interstate at any given Burger King and know exactly what to order and where to pee. Its predictable. Its comfortable. Its kind of impersonal (even most personal service in big box stores is scripted), but sometimes thats exactly what were looking for. Were so unused to making conversation with strangers, to giving up our personal space and our personal time for someone else, that its become a difficult thing to do. And we dont want to make that kind of sacrifice just to get a quick hamburger (or fifty quick hamburgers, if were shopping from Costco). Connection is uncomfortable, and corporations dont force us to connect through anything but our debit cards and (maybe our smartphones ). We are known, not by our names, but by our customer numbers. Yes, that corporate model can be anonymous and monotonous, but sometimes monotony is comforting. While its true that the big boxes can be soulless, that doesnt mean they have to be or that they always are.

Why do we pass up independently owned shops in favor of their corporate counterparts? One common explanation is that we just dont understand what they have to offer. (Personal service is the big talking point here.) Yes, independents have personal service, but maybe thats not what were looking for anymore. Maybe the efficiency and affordability of big box stores is what we want, and not what we settle for. It could be that the personal touch were supposed to be missing is the very thing were avoiding.