8 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
COVER STORY
THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2003
THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2003
Local Stores
Despite huge corporations, loyal buyers spend area dollars
By JJ Hensley
jhensley@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
That sort of financial accountability has been the rallying cry for connoisseurs of locally produced goods and services since the movement's nascent days. In his book, How Wal-Mart is Destroying America, Texas-based journalist Bill Quinn argues that every dollar spent in a local business will be spent again one or more times before it leaves the area. Money spent at the local hardware store is spent again with the local delivery company and again at the local diner. The money spent in Wal-Mart is shipped to a bank in Arkansas the next
"I like to have an understanding of where things come from and what I consume," said Raney, a KU student studying at Haskell University this semester. "I like to know where my money's going, and it's easier to have accountability for that with a local business."
To Lawrence shoppers like Bret Raney, an evil behemoth exists on the southwest corner of Seventh and Massachusetts streets.
There, in the form of Starbucks, the Gap, American Eagle Outfitters and Abercrombie and Fitch, a corporate conglomerate of international businesses co-exists. According to locally conscious consumers like Raney, those businesses, and their corporate cousins around town, should be avoided at all costs, even if shopping locally does cost a little more.
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Co-Directors of Downtown Lawrence Inc., Melodie E. Christal and Maria S. Martin, work to preserve and promote downtown Lawrence through their involvement in the community end with Downtown Lawrence Inc. Martin, the owner of Southwest And More, 727 Massachusetts St., said, "Shopping local gives the customer real individual service."