I think of small business owners in America as often being heroic, in the Corporate Nation the deck is stacked against them. Corporate lobbyists push for legislation that complicates their lives, increases their paperwork, imposes regulatory fees that only big corporations can afford to pay. Pharmacies, bookstores, pet stories compete against corporate chains that buy in bulk and are predatory, driving out smaller competitors. I am turning my life inside out to buy local and it has brought me new friends, great connection, extraordinary service and a powerful sense of community.

I buy my books at Battenkill Books from Connie, I buy my medicines from Bridget at O’Hearn’s, I buy my dog from from Celeste at the Handsome Hound in North Bennington, Vermont, my sandwiches from the Round House Cafe. The Handsome Hound is half hour drive, it is worth every mile. The dog people come in steadily to talk to Celeste, ask her opinion about food, fret about their pet’s health problems. Unlike corporations, small business owners seem to have a conscience about the things they sell, they know my name and offer me very personal service. When I went to the Handsome Hound today to get my Fromm Food and a new collar for Red, Celeste came out to the car to try different sizes out on him. It is gratifying to buy my dog food from a true animal lover – her face lights up in joy when she is around her dogs – rather than some angry kid who hates his job and pretends to be courteous.

The Handsome Hound is sweetest place. Celeste is surrounded by her boisterous Bernese Mountain Dogs and various dogs left there for grooming – lots of joyous barking. She follows my blog, always takes time to chat, talks to me about my photos, she is restoring an old Vermont schoolhouse and moving there in the fall.  She is a rabid Red Sox fan and a great animal lover, she only sells  holistic foods and will not sell anything she doesn’t think is good for dogs – I wonder how many pet chain stores do that.

I fear that one day soon the Connie’s and Bridget’s and Celeste’s of the world – they are friends as well as merchants – will not be able to survive the onslaughts of Amazon, CVS and Rite-Aid and Petco. Americans seem to care about the lowest prices more than they care about anything else and these sweet and personal stores sometimes feel like fortresses to me, little Alamo’s holding off assaults from the great corporate armies and their many lobbyists and docile regulators. The desk seems stacked against them, yet they hold on, hang on, bright but fading outposts of individuality and connection. I always feel like a human being when I buy local, I never do in a corporate franchise. In our fragmenting corporate world, it is hard to feel like a human sometimes, hard to feel like you matter. I always do when I buy local.

I don’t know how long Celeste can or will hang out, but I will hang onto her as long as she does.