I really love to support independent, locally owned businesses. (There are some exceptions to this – I’m looking at you, Common Grounds.) One of my least favorite things about Waco is the abundance of chains that I am forced to shop at. However, on vacation in Lousiville this week, I was able to head to a locally owned bookstore called Carmichael’s, which was attached to a local coffee shop – Heine Bros.

It made me happy and I bought a few things. (For the record, I bought Food, Inc. and The Book Thief and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and a pouch of organic coffee) I bought things to say “Thank you so much for not being large and impersonal. Thank you for playing NPR as I shopped. Thank you for having an excellent children’s book section that Bethany and I could look through. Thanks for having local recommendations and a really rad sustainable living section. Thanks for keeping it classy in Louisville. Well done.”

I didn’t really understand the differences between local vs. national business until I was in college as I listened to people from small towns talk about WalMart and how it was killing their local businesses. As much of a fan I am of convienience at times, I wish it wasn’t always at the expense of something. I’m not saying that national chains are always horrible for the community (WaWa, Target and some others are known for their local participation) – but the sociological landscape of the current world is littered with corporations who are not kind to their surroundings. I wish we- as a people – were better at this balance.

I wish that we were better at acknowledging that no one exists in a vacuum. That the ways that I behave and the products that I buy and the ideas that I support affect persons in countries that I can’t find easily upon a map. I wish that togetherness and global community were not just topics for cheesetastic songs from Disney Channel movies, but were acutally driving concepts of society.

*sigh*

All of that to say – I like local businesses. I wish that someone would open an independent bookshop in Waco and I especially wish that that person would call it “Shop Around the Corner”.