Heather Ladick, of Zeppelin Threads, wrote a little editorial for The Cynthiana Democrat where she challenged readers to try shopping around town rather than relying upon Wal-Mart. In her writing, she explained that she has spent the past five months doing that very thing, and has relied upon “local” stores as much as possible, only making purchases out of town when there hasn’t been an alternative–and even then she has avoided large corporate or chain stores. I applaud her.
I for one would love to do the same, and will attempt to do so in the coming months. It will be a slight challenge for me, where I have grown so accustomed to strapping the kids in a cart and strolling up and down the aisles of a single store, but I think that I’ll manage.
On a related note, a dear friend of mine, Matt Hyatt, will be having a showing on May 31 at Ladick’s gallery. Matt will be showcasing and selling various pieces including photography and artwork. If you’re on Facebook you can find out more and RSVP here.
As in “I need your business”. That’s begging I don’t like beggars. We live really close to downtown Cynthiana, but until there is better parking, and the stores have better business hours and a greater selection of products, I’m not going to waste my time shopping there. Wal-Mart has run a lot of smaller businesses out of town (all across America), but they did it by at least somewhat resolving the very issues I am talking about. May I ask how you know Heather personally?
I’m finding myself having great difficulty in trying to keep my reply as succinct as possible. It seems that any topic involving Cynthiana brings out my talkative side. I’m in the process of writing something larger (I believe it will be too large to post as a reply), and I invite you to check back and read it if you’re interested.
But to try and address what you wrote, just in case you don’t want to waste your time reading my odd ramblings (I can’t say as I’d blame you, I bore myself sometimes):
I agree and respect your viewpoint on Cynthiana’s parking issues and business’ hours. How can anyone with a family easily shop downtown Cynthiana? It’s quite a task, in comparison to making that trip to wally-world. I’ve got two kids, aged two and four. I’d much rather strap them in a cart and push ’em around in a glorified warehouse than have to carry them down the street and keep them out of stuff in multiple shops.
And then there’s the business hours of local shops. Once upon a time I worked at Concept Packaging. When Concept moved to G-town, it became very difficult for me to do anything in Cynthiana. By the time I returned from work (on a first shift schedule), went home, showered and rested for thirty minutes or so, most of the stores (excluding grocers and rental stores) would be closing or closed. It was a bit easier for me to shop locally when I worked second shift hours, but if I managed to forget to do something, it would have to wait for the next day.
Honestly, I was ecstatic when the supercenter opened up. Though it might not have been the solution I really wanted, it was a solution. In my mind, I had no logical choice but to take advantage of what Wal-Mart had to offer at that time. But now?
My choices for shopping have opened up as I am no longer having to deal with the same time constraints. (I’m no longer working; haven’t been for nearly a year. I do the house-husband thing now.) So, I really have no reason to continue to shop Wal-Mart. Sort-of. I know there’s another argument there–what about supporting the local employees? I’ll try and address that in my upcoming post.
How do I know Heather personally? To my knowledge, I don’t; nor did I claim to. I merely read her story, found it interesting, and wished to share it, as I believe in the idea. I do however know Hyatt, who’s scheduled for a showing. I worked with him at DiMark Electronics and Concept. I also bought a car from him at an out of town lot. (GASP! Out of town! Yeah, we tried the local lots first, but couldn’t get financed through any of them.)