Find your joy: shop, promote local businesses

By Claire Cudahy

This President's Day weekend I found myself four hours up north in the coastal town of Irish Beach, a small town just south of Mendocino.

With no cell phone reception, internet access or cable, we were — in twenty-first century terms — isolated. With our newfound freedom, we decided to explore the area. Our wanderings led us to the quaint community of Mendocino where I was in awe of the community feeling and local agriculture.

"Shop Local" is the campaign mantra of many organizations these days, as people begin to fear the impact a decline in local shopping will have on the stability and integrity of their community. Websites like www.shoplocalsf.org enumerate the benefits of shopping at locally owned businesses, including the statistic from the San Francisco Retail Diversity Study that found for every dollar, twice as much will be reinvested in the community by a local store rather than a national store.

According to the same study, "A slight shift in consumer purchasing behavior — diverting just 10 percent of purchases from national chain stores to locally owned businesses — would, each year, create 1,300 new jobs and yield nearly $200 million in incremental economic activity."  

Mendocino, located 9.5 miles south of Fort Bragg, is positioned on a peninsula surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, offering scenic views from all points in the town. Despite the small size of the community — a population of fewer than 1,000 people — it has gained popularity as an artist colony and vacation destination.

As we arrived in town, we drove by a long strip of stores facing the ocean. Each small storefront was cheerily accented with flowers and doors were propped open to let in the cool sea breeze. There was a jam store with an enthusiastic store owner who claimed clairvoyance for guessing favorite flavors, an old church converted into an organic market and art galleries galore.

A community-wide charity box for spaying and neutering cats was on every check-out counter. There wasn't a single retail chain in sight. Instead, there were stores selling locally made products and run by freakishly nice store clerks.

Throughout the town, there were handwritten signs saying "No cell phone use please, this is a quiet area." An older couple sat at a fair-trade coffee shop drawing the building across the street with oil pastels. In the distance, kids built driftwood forts on the beach. People walked slower and said hello when they passed in the street. Every little aspect of the town added to its unique character.   

We stopped inside a wine shop in hopes of finding a good Chardonnay from one of the many vineyards we had passed on our drive up. The clerk recommended several bottles, and we ended up with a bottle of Cesar Toxqui Cellars, mainly because of the story behind it.   According to the clerk, the wine was made by Cesar Toxqui, a Mexican immigrant who moved to Mendocino at the age of 16. Toxqui worked his way up at Fetzer Vineyards; he began tying grape vines and ended up managing the vineyard.

Now he has his own wine label. The clerk spoke of him like a good friend: "I always tell him once he gets a golden retriever, he really has achieved the American dream," he laughed.   After the wine shop, we went to the grocery store. The products were overwhelmingly local. The eggs came from a farm a few miles away. The butter was from one of the many cows lazily grazing in fields overlooking the water nearby. As a frequent Safeway shopper on a budget, I was pleasantly surprised by the reasonably priced local merchandise.   

Compared to the sprawling cities of Santa Clara and San Jose, the intimate atmosphere created by the beautiful vistas and local support in Mendocino was inspiring and refreshing. It had been a long time since I had been in a place that was so community oriented. People shopped local, promoted others who were local, and found joy in the simpler things in life.

The eclectic array of locally-owned businesses shaped the personality of the town, reminding me just how important small businesses are to the life of a community. While small stores remain concerned about their future, it is understood that small shifts in shopping habits can easily alleviate the strain on local retailers.

If you are interested in supporting local businesses and the Santa Clara community, try shopping at smaller retail stores rather than the larger conglomerates. Dine at local, independent restaurants for a unique experience. For local produce and goods, every Saturday in Franklin Square (between Benton and Homestead) there is a Farmer's Market open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., featuring fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers, various ethnic cuisines and several arts and crafts booths. Help your community by making the conscious decision to shop local.            

Claire Cudahy is a junior English major.