Monday, May 25, 2020

#ShopLocal or don't shop at all

Big message on a small paper bag
London, ON
May 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram
I worry for the future of local businesses, especially the ones owned and operated by people we know, families and friends trying to make life in this community better.

Their business model was tenuous enough before the pandemic, and now it's almost impossible to imagine the uncertainty that has enveloped them.

So we shop local wherever we can, and consciously focus our regular spending toward those closest or most integral to our community.

But we're just one family in one corner of a mid-sized city, and there aren't enough dollars in the world to guarantee everyone makes it out of this intact. But I've got to think it might lead to something fundamentally good if we all do what we can. Yes, shop there, but also be there. Reach out. Let them know they're not alone.

So when our favorite breakfast place, @TheSingingChefLondon, reopened its doors under radically different circumstances, we knew there wasn't anyone else we wanted to make Sunday breakfast for us and our kids.

We know they meant every word on every bag. Which is why we'll keep going back. The food was, of course, lovely. But it was the quick chat as I picked it up that made my day. And the message on the bag that stopped me in my tracks. These folks matter.

I know it's a tiny drop in a very large bucket, but it's got to start somewhere. Because life on Planet Earth, pandemic or not, has always been about making the most out of the microconnections that define the communities we call home.

And I can't imagine a community like ours without good folks like them.

So let's all connect, shall we?

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #random #restaurant #shopping #retail #shop #shoplocal #stilllife #photography #google #pixel2 #teampixel #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

1 comment:

Tabor said...

Our U.S. economy has been fragile for a long time with people living from paycheck to paycheck and the largest amount of capital being held by the few. If liberals re-emerge in Congress I hope for change, but most voters are fearful of change.