Staying local, especially in this economy

I have been witnessing the affects of the economy.  I have 2 close friends who were laid off several months ago.  Both are still looking for employment, but fortunately one is doing lots of side jobs to make ends meet.  Many local business have also had to close up shop.  I have been shopping mostly at Walmart to save money ourselves but am beginning to rethink this practice.  I was also going to have a garage sale but am donating the items instead.

After going out to Tempe Market Place last Friday, I have taken a better look at our own disturbia, Ahwatukee.  Upon arriving to the first watering hole, we were told in order to get a table outside, we would have to pay $100.  Jokingly, I replied “yes, I heard you tell the customer on the phone 5 times”.  The hostess didn’t think it was funny. I was simply commenting on how frustrating it must have been for her to have to repeat the same thing 4 times.  I was on her side.  We left to go to the less busy bar.  Ok, so we had to wait several minutes before even being greeted by the bartender.  Then when she finally did greet us, she wasn’t cordial.  No smile or ‘Hi, how are you guys?’    A simple, ‘What can I get you?’ was all.  I looked at Dana and questioned why we left our neighborhood to get treated like crap.  Ahwatukee has a small town feel and we get treated well at the local establishments.  Think Cheers.  They all know us or at-least recognize us.  CK’s even has our drinks ready when they see us walk in.

Does staying local help our economy?   I think it does, and we’ll do business more in our own slice of disturbia.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 17, 2009 at 10:26 am and is filed under Alcohol, Weekend. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

| Print