Wrapping your mind around buying local

Sunday, March 25, was the “20th Annual ‘Buy Local’ Festival featuring Trades Arts & Crafts.” A mouthful of a title, but a really wonderful event that has through the years helped unite the Tri-state business community and the buying public in a thoroughly unique and successful way.The trade fair, as many call it, is sponsored by the Tri-State Chamber of Commerce, which is based in Lakeville, Conn., but reaches across Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts. The chamber does an incredible job of promoting the festival to an estimated 60,000 people — pressing the message of buy local over and over until it becomes like a mantra to all who attend the day-long event held at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village, Conn.And that message to buy local is an important one. It keeps businesses in operation, especially in areas like ours. There are so many independently owned shops and restaurants, bookstores and movie theaters, farms and salons — you name it and you’re likely to discover that favorite area business you like to visit is owned and operated by a local businessman or woman. And those are the very businesses we need to support if we intend to keep the economy in this neck of the woods viable. Spend your dollars here and the businesses you love will be able to afford to stay here. The services you value will remain. The tradesmen you respect will be available for hire. The towns and villages you preen over, the communities you covet and the lifestyle you love — all will be able to sustain themselves. Buy local. It’s a simple concept, but an important one.If you’re a business owner, support local organizations like the Tri-State Chamber of Commerce. If you’re a consumer, support your local retailers. Yes, we live in a small world these days, but it’s ripe with many opportunities. For local economies to thrive we, as consumers, must be aware of what’s available in our immediate surroundings, who our commercial neighbors are, what’s lining our main streets just as much as who is running our town halls. Yes, global awareness is important in today’s world, but so, too, is local acuity. So when you’re in the market for, well, anything, make use of local resources. Just be sure to express gratitude for the fact that in this area those resources are so plentiful. And don’t forget to repeat that all important mantra — buy local, buy local, buy local — day in and day out. It will do a world, and a community — any community — of good.