Buy local: Keep the money here when holiday shopping
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And as the urge to start the gift-buying sets in, there’s another important thing to remember aside from the underlying meaning of the holidays themselves. It’s important, more than ever in these tougher economic times, to buy local.
Keeping the dollars in the Fairbanks community is what we need to do. When dollars stay here, jobs have a better chance of staying here.
Consider this number from the Alaska Department of Labor: Alaska lost about 500 retail jobs from September 2008 to September of this year. Most of us can’t do much personally to influence the number of jobs in industries such as oil and gas, seafood processing, education, construction, finance and government. But we can help Alaska retailers.
And we do that by buying local. A dollar that stays in Fairbanks moves from one person to the next, greasing the gears of the local economic engine.
That benefits all of us.
Buying local also gives you the opportunity to add some nice Alaska flavor to your gift-giving if you make the effort to buy locally made products. Look for the “Made in Alaska” label on loads of products in stores around Fairbanks, North Pole and beyond. The official sticker, depicting a polar bear and cub, signifies that the product has met the stringent criteria of the state’s Office of Economic Development, which runs the program.
Yes, but you say you like the ease of ordering online. That’s fine, but you can buy online but still buy local because many local businesses have online purchase options.
So make the effort.
Keep the money here this year.
Those jobs could have gone to someone in Fairbanks or at least Alaska. The reason is that if we can't compete and win, they we don't deserve the job. In the end, it is best for everybody if we leave it up to an open, competitive process.
Northpolereader:
Yes, the folks who work for freddies and sams (directly or indirectly) like stockers, cashiers, accountants, state-based truckers, and electrical companies do benefit in their paycheck. The difference between what people call "local" and "non-local" is in the smaller details. Details like where their light-bulbs come from, where the raw-materials are bought, and who plows their parking, increase the value that local business has on our community. When you can afford it, but your gifts locally. MZake a big deal out of it too. Include a business card or a pamphlet. Go with services like massage or hair-care. A gifts uniqueness increases it's value greatly.
All you have to do is 'remind yourself' to go visit one or more of the 'local business establishments' if you think we should "Buy Locally". Make a note on your wall calendar (or in your Computer "Outlook" Calendar) to go visit Big Rays', or Prospector, or Beaver Sports, or any one of a couple dozen other establishments. Do this once or twice between now and Christmas (oops, am I allowed to say that?) and they will have a profitable "Holiday Season"...
Charlie B.
Well, duh. But the fact remains that the price point of Silver Gulch beer went too high to compete with the carbonated-urine brands due to the borough tax.
Has someone taken econ 101 recently?
We don't pay 8% sales tax or have state income taxes (because we don't let statist liberals get their way).
Yeah, you just steal it from the hard-working oil companies instead.
By the way...if I am succeed at psoting this comment...this new version of DNM needs some fixing...apperantly I am not human?????
Silver Gulch is more expensive than Miller Lite or Heineken (all of which I drink) because of economies of scale. Miller Lite produces tons of beer so they can sell it in mass quantities cheap. There is also a difference between the kind of beer produced at micro-breweries and that produced at huge ones. Fairbanks Lager, Miller Lite, and Heineken are all lager beers, but the Fairbanks Lager is much darker and heavier.
You people might as well express outrage that something is cheaper at Sams Club than it is at the gas station convenience store.
I use to live in the lower 48 (Chicago) and I don't think the cost of living is much higher. After all the taxes in the lower 48, the cost of living here might actually be lower. We don't pay 8% sales tax or have state income taxes (because we don't let statist liberals get their way).
What about those that work in import sectors? What about those that work in large retailers? If we spend more money buying Alaska made products that are inferior to products from outside, then do we not have less money to spend on other goods and services? Just because other people are throwing rocks in their harbor, doesn't mean you should too. Buy whatever you like. Don't bother checking where it is from. Comparative advantage will force people to specialize in what they do best.
People that don't understand trade economics really should shut up when it comes to this issue. Notice how the news miner doesn't quote a single economist or even use a shred of economic reasoning for this garbage column. They use political reasoning because feeling is easier than thinking because thinking requires education in the subject at hand.
My family does! Gulliver's doesn't put the screws to you like other Fairbanks businesses.
Oh_Please support Gulliver's, not Amazon! :-)
You can thank fabulous past right-wing borough assemblies for that one. They instituted an alcohol tax that took brands like Silver Gulch from affordable to unaffordable. And they refused to give a tax exemption to local breweries. So their tax is helping to destroy local businesses.
I swear, local Republicans are taxing us to death!
It's called capitalism.