Adventures In The Local Economy

Carrboro's identity crisis

In last week's Citizen, I wondered out loud about why Carrboro keeps being lumped in with other Triangle cities whenever the national media come calling. Read it here.

Sutton's survives

Nice article in today's Daily Tar Heel chronicling Sutton's survival on E. Franklin Street. It really shows you how hard it is to stay independent in the face of crushing competition from deep-pocketed national chains. But the truth is, Sutton's survives because -- with the exception of the health products and sundries it sells -- it's decidedly different from those cookie-cutter shops. The lunch counter and authentic memorabilia make it one-of-a-kind among drug stores today. But the real difference-maker is tradition. Sutton's is as much a part of the Carolina experience as losing your ID. It's rolled with the changes to become something more than the drugstore I grew up with, when as many locals as were students patronized the establishment. It's a landmark for Carolina alums and students alike -- and still a place I love to go as a townie.

There are a lot of lessons to be learned from Sutton's model. But one thing's for sure: we need to keep supporting local enterprises like this. If too many students, faculty, staff and locals stop popping in to buy stuff other than breakfast or lunch, Sutton's may not have the margins to keep the whole place open. That'd be a damn shame. Don't let it happen.

Hmmm. I'm feeling a bacon cheeseburger for lunch now. Maybe I'll see you there.

Read my underwear expose

From this week's Citizen comes my expose on the availability of underwear in our fair city: Underwear uncovered in Carrboro.

Local unemployment fares fares better than state, nation

But just barely. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released shattering unemployment numbers today that show the nation's employers are continuing to slash jobs in an attempt to deal with slackened spending. While the our state and county's November numbers won't be out till later this month, we looked not-horrible in October.

Read about in my story from yesterday's Citizen: Few bright spots in the local unemployment picture.

Ideas for supporting the local economy

Lots of folks 'round these parts are very excited about BALLE, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. I think the group does some good stuff, but it seems a little cookie-cutter to me. And BALLE's kissing cousin, Michael Shuman, appears to be an ideologue whose ideas would be incredibly hard to implement in the real world.

Still, both BALLE and Shuman have some good ideas worth considering and BALLE, in particular, is a fine aggregator of information on the value of local living economies. Here are some items from the latest BALLE newsletter (with a tip of the hat to Dan Coleman for doing the digesting for me):

1) Van Jones' new book has a 10-page "policy ideas" section on green collar jobs.
2) 80 indie weeklies are participating in a spend $100 locally for the holidays promotion.
3) Michael Shuman wrote an article on local investment mechanisms.
4) A proposed Agenda for a New Economy.
5) The City of Denver proclaims Buy Local Week.
6) Elfster has a "Secret Santa" website supporting local businesses.

What do you think?

National jobs trends borne out here at home

Read about it in my page one feature in this week's Citizen: Local unemployment on the rise.

When the Lord closes a door....

The recession is beginning to hit local business hard. 3 Gatos in Hillsborough is going out of business and Mehera Shaw here in Carrboro is holding a liquidation sale. I also hear through the grapevine that two new-ish restaurants are struggling, one of them a month away from having to shutter the operation. This is what some folks were talking about when they said it was Main Street that needed to be bailed out. Both streets (the other being Wall) needed help. Without helping the big banks, commercial credit would be even more squeezed than it is right now. But there needed, and still needs to be, some specific policy and moolah earmarked for small businesses like these.

I don't know if you've ever owned a business, particularly one that involves inventory. I grew up in a family business (some of you old timers may remember Chefs International in Kroger Plaza). I know from watching my father how hard it is to keep a small business going during tough economic times. And Chefs was considered a success. Still, we closed the store in 1979 after 15 years because the cost of doing business was high and competition from deep-pocketed behemoths pulled away some of our customer base. So when a locally owned and operated business closes, it's kind of visceral for me.

But it's not all doom and gloom in the local economy, at least not if you believe the folks at the Visitors Center who're crowing about the hotel boom coming to Orange County. You can read about it in a detailed story by Rich Fowler in this week's Carrboro Citizen:

Huge increase in hotel rooms on the horizon.

Is this what the Reverend Mother meant in The Sound of Music when she tells Maria, "When the Lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window"?

"Media Blitz" dampens Halloween business

Read my story on how the authorities' attempts to keep unruliness down effected business downtown:

Halloween short on treats for business owners from today's Carrboro Citizen.

Coworking is catching on

Interesting article in Workforce Management on the benefits of coworking -- which you can do locally at Carrboro Creative Coworking!

Mayor Chilton: Will you support greener schools?

Green schools may not be a clear economic gain for our community, but they have less impact on our natural environment and school construction does create jobs. So I encourage Mayor Chilton to join the Mayors' Alliance for Green Schools.

Here's the news release announcing the initiative from the US Green Building Council.