Buying local. What are your views?

TastyReuben said:
I just get really turned off by governments, unions, commerce boards, manufacturers, etc tying "Buy <your country here>!" to patriotism, like you're some kind of traitor if you dare buy something made somewhere else.

Patriotism? Love of country? Hell, sounds more like emotional blackmail from an abusive partner to me: "Buy these shoes made in-country or...or...OR YOU DON'T LOVE ME ANYMORE!"
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Not to mention how many of them put their fortunes in an offshore somewhere else than their country...
 
I do have a funny story about unknowingly buying something direct from China.

I wanted to buy a couple of cheap baseball-style novelty tees for two nieces. I generally knew what I wanted on each one, so I started googling, then found a storefront that looked fine, lots of models wearing things, shoes, handbags, etc.

They had two shirts that fit the bill, so I ordered them. This was in October, maybe (I may have even mentioned this at the time).

After a couple of weeks with no update on the order, I emailed the company and got a reply written in extremely-poor English, along with a tracking number. Ok, probably a Chinese company, no worries...

I started checking the tracking. Every few days, it'd bounce from one location in China to another, then another, then another, then back to the first one, then another new one, then another previous one.

Finally, as it got closer to Christmas with no shirts and repeated unhelpful emails, I figured I was being scammed, and contacted the credit card company, who promptly refunded my money and said, "We'll take care of it."

Fine, whatever, forgot about the whole thing...until sometime in Spring, when the damn shirts showed up!

I took them out and looked at them...one had a sleeve about twice as long as the other sleeve, the other had the illustration on the front all crooked, and the sizes where hilariously off.
 
CraigC said:
Our growing season is just beginning and tomatoes are not done. We look forward to our "winter" strawberries. Our local varieties of avocado trees have fruit ready to pick. Daddy sugar is in full swing. Last time I was up state, citrus is a going concern, though I won't buy any Florida oranges.
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Why? I thought Florida oranges were the best to be had. I am shocked.
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
When I saw local in the title, I took it literally to mean my neighborhood. From that standpoint:
  • I will always buy from a local farm before I'll buy from a supermarket. This is more from a selfish desire to get better quality (as some have said, supermarket vegetables look perfect, but don't taste the way they're supposed to taste).
  • I will also buy from a "mom and pop" market before I'll buy from a corporate market. This is more to support local businesses; I have always done this, even if it means paying a little bit more. I've seen too many small places closed as mega-corporations have come in. I saw Blockbuster video crush small video stores by lowering prices, then raising them once the small store closed. When Blockbuster shut down, I was particularly happy, but the damage as already done.
  • I will buy American whenever possible, but what does that really mean? As caseydog pointed out with Walmart, the company is American, but the products are from everywhere. A lot of times, the decision does come down to price. If I do have a choice, and the quality is what I want, I will pick the American-made product.
On the last point, I've been working for Ford Motor Company for over 30 years, so it's pretty obvious where my automotive loyalties lie. But, I have gained perspective on that point over the years. I used to get upset when someone decided to buy a product from another auto maker. I've since come to realize that we - Ford - needed to step up our game to do things better so people will want to buy our products. I can't blame anyone who bought vehicles from other countries in the 1980s and 1990s...our quality wasn't good, and we (American auto makers) had gotten complacent because we had so many decades of undisputed dominance. Competition is a good thing: as the water rises, all boats (or cars) rise.
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Well said. Bravo
 
Morning Glory said:
It is a slightly confusing thread - the OP was about buying British post Brexit (not buying imported goods). Of course, local can mean different things in different countries. The US is a huge country and buying local can mean something very different than it might in the UK which is an island.

In a nutshell, the original question posed in this thread is 'should we support our own countries economy but buying goods made in our country rather than imported from other countries?'
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I think "buying local" here means buying from within about 100 miles. "Buying American" is buying from anywhere in our own country. Since the US is so big, we can get most of our produce, and pretty much all of our meats from somewhere inside our country, all year long. Some comes from Mexico, and some from South America.

CD
 
Jour son lives about 25 mins south, we take the rural roads, farm and horse country, there's a stall there that we always top up on. It's closed since covid. Potatoes and onions from a farm 15 mins away. That's local to me.

Russ
 
A neighbour called by last night to offer us some lamb for the freezer. We agreed to buy half a carcass for £80, about £10/kilo. It has been finished on pasture just 100m up the lane. Thats buying local!
 
epicuric said:
A neighbour called by last night to offer us some lamb for the freezer. We agreed to buy half a carcass for £80, about £10/kilo. It has been finished on pasture just 100m up the lane. Thats buying local!
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Indeed it is mate. I remember my Dad letting a local farmer put ewes and lambs in our orchard to graze. John Evans had his main farm next to lake Bala. He turned up every spring with a lamb. My Dad was a Jew brought up in London so he new nothing about farming. In 1957 he decided to fatten weaner pigs in the autumn that year as food was still short. His gardener was a German ex pow who married and stayed. He looked after them and slaughtered and butchered the pigs that were not swapped for lamb or chickens. My Dad would give "Fred" half a pig for his extra paid work. When my Dad died Fred arrived in a wheel chair with 15 family members.
 
When I first visited Croatia just after the war there were a few supermarkets. The economy was struggling. The country had no money for imports. From a food perspective, my wife is of that generation. The only meat she will buy is Croatian. That applies to most edibles. We are just getting ready to visit the notary in Drnis. We will visit the market to buy the famous Drnis Prsut. Why buy Italian/ German when you can buy local.
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Drniški pršut - Naslovnica
 
caseydog said:
I think "buying local" here means buying from within about 100 miles.
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In the UK that would mean it wasn't local :laugh:. Its all relative!

CookieMonster said:
the definition of "buy local" requires a definition.
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The original post was in relation to supporting your own countries economy rather than buying imported goods. Local is probably the wrong word to use. I can change the title of the thread. But to what?
 
We cannot buy local produce so we travel to 1 village for the butcher, his meat comes from local to him farms and as an independent I would rather give him money then a supermarket. We used to go to a farmshop, again their produce was local to them, they would have signs up to tell you which farms the produce came from, unfortunately they decided to change from local to organic, prices went up and quality dropped so we don't go there any more-ridiculous prices.

Originally I posted about buying British goods rather than from other countries due to a request to join a facebook group, I think there is some racism lurking which is why I haven't joined.
 
I don't know if it's changed since around 2015, but at that time, Kroger defined local as within a 400-mile radius.

Dorothy Lane, the gourmet grocer I use, defined local as, I kid you not, "Is it a morning's drive or less from the farm to the store?"
 
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