Buying local has always been a popular sentiment, but the
movement has picked up steam in recent years. Especially this
holiday season, consumers are being urged to patronize local
businesses that in-turn buy from other local businesses. Better
to keep those dollars close to home.
A recent issue of the Shepherd Express, an alternative
weekly paper in Milwaukee, gives readers an added incentive to
buy local. Readers who pledge to spend $100 at Milwaukee-owned
stores can receive gift certificates and other goodies.
There is nothing wrong with buying local, of course. Consumers
have every right to choose where they shop. But on close
examination, it gets tricky.
Take a locally-owned coffee shop. Very little of what it sells is
actually local. The coffee beans come from Brazil, Ghana, Kenya
— half a world away. The cappuccino was invented in Italy and
many of the machines are manufactured in China. How is it “buying
local” when you spend money there?
The trucks that hauled the goods to the locally owned business
might be American-made — but probably not in greater Milwaukee,
unless the delivery man drives a Harley. And the truck just as
likely came from Japan or Germany.
And the customers? They probably wear clothes made in Bangladesh,
Mexico, or Indonesia. If they are well-heeled, they might be
wearing an Italian suit, or the latest fashions from Paris. They
might surf the web on computers made in Japan or Korea and listen
to music on an iPod — the back of which proudly says, “Designed
by Apple in California. Assembled in China.”
Almost the whole world came together to make this “local”
business what it is. And all this is happening at a time when
world opinion is as anti-American as ever. This is a marvel of
human cooperation across countries. Even a simple coffee shop is
a thing of wonder.
Why then, do some people make such a production of their
preference of local goods over non-local goods? Why should
product origin matter at all?
People rightly take pride in their hometown. But local production
doesn’t always correlate with quality. Wisconsin isn’t known for
its excellent locally grown coffee. Suppose Wisconsin farmers
tried to make coffee instead of wheat, cranberries, or dairy
products. That would not be a boon to local consumers.
Better for Milwaukeeans to leave coffee growing to the experts —
and better for the rest of the world to have more of Wisconsin’s
cheese, beer, and other specialties. That’s what economists call
comparative advantage. It turns out that specialization is a good
thing.
The way for a town to prosper is for it to do what it does best.
And just as importantly, to not do what it does poorly. If every
town tried to produce locally everything it consumes, quality
would suffer and prices would be much higher because of the
diseconomies of scale that would create.
In the end, it doesn’t matter whether you do your holiday
shopping at locally owned stores or Megalomart. Either way, the
store’s employees might well live in your neighborhood. Either
way, their livelihood depends on your patronage. And either way,
they probably aren’t selling local wares.
Buying local is mostly a fiction.
What that means is that the products you buy are made by millions
of people from dozens of countries. They don’t know each other
and might even dislike each other if they were to meet. Yet they
all work together to give you the perfect gingerbread-flavored
latte. This is poetry. It’s what the holidays are all about:
peace, togetherness, and goodwill toward all men — not just
these who happen to live nearby.
