Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Shop Local in style!


Won't you want to go shopping with this bag?! Or, you might just want to wear one of the buttons. Supporting locally-owned stores is one of the basic tenets of the Kansas Explorers Club.

One of our early motto's was "Explorers pay full price!" Some of us even asked to pay full price when purchasing something on a sales rack if we were in a locally-owned store in a small town. Crazy? Maybe. But we WANT to help locals stay in business and don't think they need to give a big discount to gain our patronage.

Eventually, we settled on the statement of "Explorers feel good about shopping in small towns." And we do.

We're not shy to say that we think this is a really good thing to do. Make a choice. Each purchase is an indicator of who and which kind of business-style you wish to support.

Stacy Mitchell, author of Big-Box Swindle says, "For every $100 spent in a chain store, $14 goes back into the local economy; from a locally-owned business, $45 goes back in."

The bags and buttons will be for sale at the March 24 We Kan! Conference and the May 2-3 Kansas Sampler Festival in Concordia. Or, call ahead, and come visit us at the Kansas Sampler Center near Inman!

Shop Local! "Get Kansas!"

KE #2 Marci Penner

p.s. We purchased the Shop Local bags from Advertising Specialties in Hutchinson, owned by Inman's own Ruth Sisson!


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful idea on the bag and buttons. We were raised near Enterprise, Ks and Mom and Dad taught us to support our local businesses as much as possible. Oh we shopped in Abilene too, but we tried to support Enterprise too. I've purchased bags at our local HyVee grocery store and love to give them as gifts, or to put gifts in.

Talking about the Livestock yard in your next article reminds me of one of my earliest memories on the farm when Mr Bailey used to come out and load up our cattle to take to Kansas City to market or deliver our new calves. Once we came down to the Kansas City stock yards to watch the cattle being sold and what an experience for a youngster. Of course when I moved to KC many years later, the folks had to come down to see where I was living, as the stock yards was about the only picture they had in their minds of the city. lol

And finally, looking at all of this good food,,,,Marci, do you ever gain a pound? lol Of course you are on the move so much, I'm sure you work it off.

Wishing you a great turnout at the Salina conference.

Carol

Anonymous said...

Love, love, love the bag! See you at WeKan!