Small, rural towns in America have been struggling for a long time, and that leads to a much stronger dedication to the local community than I'm used to in larger cities. Whether in conversations about banking or on signs in downtown stores, people from the area clearly disapprove of dealing with national chains if there's a local alternative.
We even have that going on in Madison to some degree (and we're the State Capitol as well as being a university town). When I talk about my locavore tendencies with friends from the coasts they seem to think it's all the Michael Pollan bandwagon. But an awful lot of "Buy Local" is keeping jobs in our area. I can think of at least two organizations that are dedicated solely to supporting local businesses (Madison Originals restaurants and Dane Buy Local). Which is not to say that I don't shop at Target, but I also do a lot of shopping downtown from local businesses and the farmer's market. We're very lucky here to be able to do that.
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We even have that going on in Madison to some degree (and we're the State Capitol as well as being a university town). When I talk about my locavore tendencies with friends from the coasts they seem to think it's all the Michael Pollan bandwagon. But an awful lot of "Buy Local" is keeping jobs in our area. I can think of at least two organizations that are dedicated solely to supporting local businesses (Madison Originals restaurants and Dane Buy Local). Which is not to say that I don't shop at Target, but I also do a lot of shopping downtown from local businesses and the farmer's market. We're very lucky here to be able to do that.