You really can shop locally
By JEN MATSICK (jmatsick@reviewonline.comOn my way back to my apartment after an early morning meeting toward the beginning of the month, I took a detour to a stamp and office supply store that I'd been wanting to explore for a while.
The store looked slightly run-down and never seemed to be open despite the sign in the window that declared the opposite. I wasn't even sure which side of the building the parking lot was on.
As I stepped out of my car I had visions of some hideout for criminals disguised as a stamp and office supply store, where when you asked for a pen you received a .38 special instead.
Fortunately for me, I know of no such place that exists in real life, though I'm sure that somewhere out there, there is a place like that. I'm pretty sure I've read about one or seen one in a movie. Maybe it was a cartoon.
Anyway, when I walked in, another customer was at the counter, chatting with the store's owner. The store had just opened and half the lights were still out. Jazz was playing through the store's speakers.
I saw items for writers, sketchers, stamp and cardmaking enthusiasts, and all kinds of other creative wares.
The pens! The paper! The sketching materials! This, to me, is paradise.
I wandered around the small shopping area and picked up two of my favorite felt-tip pends, ones that I have not been able to find anywhere else.
The pens write smoother than a gel pen and seem sturdier somehow, as if a small piece of lint on the tip would not mess up the writing quality.
I left a happy customer, certain that I would never have an experience like that at a mall.
Contemplating the wonderful experience I had at the small stamp and office store, I was reminded that as consumers today, we tend to fragment our shopping experience. For example, do you know where the last item you bought came from? Do you know who made it? Do you know what their story is?
Chances are, the answer to the last two of those three questions is a resounding "no," especially if you bought that item at the mall or a local department store.
However, if you shop at a place where the owner is the cashier, or if you purchase your Christmas gifts this year at a craft show or flea market, you'll get the whole story. You can ask the owner what went into making their wares, or how long it takes them to make one, or even how they got interested in making what they do.
The few minutes you spend conversing with the item's creator can become a story that you can tell the person who receives that gift.
There aren't many places left where you can have this kind of personal, connected experience with the items you buy, but it certainly changes the way that you look at those items.
I know that the pens I bought weren't made by the man who owns the stamp and office supply store, but I do know that in buying them, I helped a local business and discovered a new place to find one of my favorite brands of pens. The experience opened my eyes to a whole different type of shopping experience.
So if the idea of crowds at the mall gets you down, and you can't stand to look at any more neon packaging or sales signs, I encourage you to go to local businesses, to the "mom and pop" stores, and see what you can find. You might be surprised.
And you'll have a great story to tell.
(Jen Matsick is a reporter for The Review, covering the villages of Wellsville and Salineville.)
