The Place Where We Live

Last night I posted about the Monroe Chamber of Commerce’s new ‘buy local’ campaign.

Upon closer inspection, I’ve found that, while well-meaning and a great first step, there seems to be one flaw in  in how they are promoting this.

The problem, in my opinion, is this: the focus seems to be on getting people to buy from businesses - any businesses - located in Monroe County rather than going to Detroit, Ann Arbor or Toledo without clarifying that it would be best to buy from a locally owned and operated businesses, rather than from a chain.

Example? One business highlighted in the video was Tim Horton’s. Now I’m not trying to pick on Tim Horton’s. And I will admit that, for some reason they really do have great coffee that I occaisionally get a craving for which must be satisfied. However, if I’m going to meet someone for coffee or a sandwich, or buy donuts, I usually try to go to Cafe Classics, Village Bistro or Monica’s Baker Boy, instead of Tim Horton’s which is an international chain. Why weren’t any of these businesses highlighted as opposed to Tim Horton’s?

True, the two Tim Horton’s stores in Monroe are franchises, and although I don’t know quite how it works, they are probably independently owned and operated by a local franchisee. And they do provide jobs to local folks. Still, I would bet that a bigger chunk of their profits goes to the international corporation that owns Tim Hortons (in 1995 they merged with Wendy’s International, Inc.) while a greater percentage of the profits would stay in Michigan one was to buy from a home-grown business.

More importantly, highlighting Tim Horton’s in the video sends the wrong message: As long you go to a Tim Horton’s in Monroe County rather than a Tim Horton’s in Detroit, Toledo, Ann Arbor, or Canada then you are buying local.

If this is the case then where does it stop? Is it then acceptable to shop at McDonalds or Wal-Mart, or dine at Applebees or Ruby Tuesdays as long as it’s in Monroe County and still feel like you are supporting your local businesses?

This may seem obvious to some people but I for others it’s not so apparent. When Kevin and I were doing our local food challenge in June someone actually said to Kevin “Well, McDonald’s is local right?” I’m not kidding.

I was also sad to see that the Monroe Farmers Market was not highlighted in the video.

Like I said before, overall I think it’s a good campaign. I just worry that it could be misleading to some people who haven’t ever thought about what it means to buy local.  

I have to admit… I read the Monroe Evening News at work. So I didn’t get it when my dad said to me on the phone this morning, “They stole your idea.” “What?” I asked. “They stole your idea…about buying local. The front page of yesterday’s Monroe Evening News was all about the Monroe Chamber of Commerce’s new ‘buy local’ campaign.”

He was joking, of course. The Monroe Chamber of Commerce hadn’t stolen my idea. They had just caught on to what communities around the country (or at least in Michigan), little by little are already catching on to…a good way to infuse money into the local economy is to encourage members of the community to shop at locally owned businesses rather than just going to big-box chain stores. I can’t take credit for it. But I was happy nonetheless that the Chamber of Commerce in Monroe is catching on.

Sorry, everyone for not posting for two weeks. I really have no good excuse like vacation or anything like that. I guess I’m just in sort of an end-of-summer slump.
I haven’t even finished blogging about my summer beer-trip which took place at the end of June, beginning of July and here it is, mid-August already! It doesn’t help that the room that houses our computer is probably THE hottest room in our mostly non-airconditioned house during the summer. This makes it extra hard to get motivated to sit down and write.  

One thing that I do always appreciate about the end of summer in Monroe, is of course the River Raisin Jazz Festival. This festival is probably one of the best events in Monore. I’d dare to say that it’s probably the only event that draws such a large number of non-locals to Monroe. That’s a great thing.  

I have to confess that I’m actually not a big fan of the type of jazz they feature at the festival. I like jazz but I prefer old-school jazz like John Coletrane,  and Miles Davis and classic vocal jazz musicians like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. I can’t really get into the smooth poppy-jazz that’s highlighted at our festival.

Nonetheless, I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Or at least I wouldn’t miss just being down-town on Jazz Festival weekend - to people watch and to just feel like you’re really a part of something big happening.

What I like even more than the Jazz Festival is the Art Festival that’s been held for the past three years down at Lorenger Square. I’d have to say that some of the beste art this year were pottery pieces by students from Monroe County Community College and Henry Ford Community College.

My favorite artist this year was Angie Ouelette-Tower of Bedford who carves out organically grown gourdes into the coolest things. You can check out Angie’s work here, although I don’t think the photos do it justice.  I ended up buying a cool purse made out of a pumpkin gourde. I’m not even that big of a shopper but when I see something cool and unique like this, I usually will splurge a little to buy it. You can keep your Prada. I’ll take my gourde bag any day of the week.

What’s even better about the Art Fair is that now that the Lorenger Square gazebo has been built you can get a nice taste of the jazz festival as you peruse the booths. I think I actually preferred the music at the gazebo better than the headlining acts at St. Mary’s Park. While we were there, there was a singer performing old standards.

I’m glad to see that both the Jazz Festival and the Art Fair continue to grow year after year. It makes me proud of Monroe.

I am proud to say that the Michigan Beer Tasting at 129 Lounge last night was officially a hit!

We were hoping to get a good crowd, like around 20-30 people.

I would guess that we had around 80 people throughout the course of the night…on a Tuesday….during Fair week….on demolition derby night!

I brought my camera to the event but, sadly, it was so busy (I was selling tickets and Kevin was pouring samples) that I only ended up taking two pictures the entire night.

Here’s one of Kevin doing his thing:

And here’s the other of Rene (who was a big help with the design of the flyer for the event) and Aaron (our resident taster) from the Monroe Evening News!

Although I never managed to get a picture of him, I wanted to give a big shout-out to Rob (our very own TechBox blogger).

Rob found out about the event after e-mailing me about my Michigan Beer Trip blog posts. I tipped him off to our plans for a Michigan Beer Tasting event and he ran with it. I’m pretty sure getting an article on in the MEN prior to the event was his doing and was one of the reasons we had such a great turn-out. And Rob was willing, on a moments notice, to help pour beer.

Plus… Kevin and I have met some cool new local craft beer geeks like us which we’re pretty excited about.

But most of all, we’re excited about the fact that this event proved that people in Monroe love great, locally brewed beer. We’re hoping that local bar owners will keep all of us beer-lovers in mind as they make their future purchasing decisions and possibly plan future Michigan beer events.

And…since this year’s event was such a success…I can’t wait to see how it goes next year.