Photo by Tim Mossholder from Pexels — Photo by **Tim Mossholder** from **Pexels**

Pause, Examine, Reset

It’s amazing how much the coronavirus pandemic has changed things. For some of us, the subsequent time that has served as a reset. Our lives have been stopped and we have a chance to evaluate things that we thought or did.

Shopping Local Now

One of the areas that is more important to me is shopping locally. In particular, I’m talking about getting food. Prior, my family and I would shop at places like Kroger or Aldi, while occasionally going out. While we have still used Kroger and Aldi, we, also, use other options.

One of our favorites is the Eastern Market Farm Boxes. My wife places an order and we get a specific pick-up window for Saturday. In our boxes, we get a selection of produce. meat (sausage, ground beef, etc.) and other goods that are not only tasty, but we support some smaller food businesses and local farmers. One of our preferred items are the jalapeño popper pierogies from People’s Pierogi.

Along with these Eastern Market Farm Boxes, another thing to do Saturdays is to pick up a few dozen tamales from Tamaleria Nuevo Leon in Southwest Detroit. It’s as simple as pulling up, calling in an order (phone number is on their front door sign) and waiting a few minutes for your order. Brief warning: as of this past weekend, payment is cash only. The tamales are so good though that, when we first went on our Saturday tamal pickup ritual, we pulled over to polish off a quick dozen.

We have, also, bought some things from local markets. We had some sandwiches from Fairfax Market delivered and picked up some curbside pizza and breadsticks from Park Place Market. Ordering food is a great occasional alternative to groceries. Plus, if an order is big, it can leave leftovers for the following days that could be combined with something that you might have already available. We might have to wait a little for home delivery or curbside pick-up, but it’s not as if we were really going anywhere. Considering the considerable convenience (albeit a little delayed), the least that we could do is wait.

Consequences Even More Real

In my opinion, I feel that before the consequences of not shopping local weren’t as apparent. If you didn’t like the food or service at a restaurant, then you could just go elsewhere or eat at home. It didn’t seem to make a difference and it didn’t seem like a big deal.

However, now, things have changed. First and foremost, there are a lot of people from the food industry that are out of work. I know people that have lost their jobs. I have seen restaurants that tried to stay open by trying to do carryout and/or curbside, only to close their doors. I can now see how every customer has taken on more importance and not supporting these small businesses has magnified impact.

Second, food availability at grocery stores seems to have stabilized. People don’t seem to be hoarding as much, stores have found their pace for getting merchandise onto the shelves plus stores have placed limits on how much customers can buy. With this being said, it’s still not unusual to not find everything that you seek. Here restaurants can fill a specific niche. If you’re unable to pick up something specific or if you have a craving for something like Mexican, Chinese or Thai, then you could place a quick order.

My Brother (Sister’s) Keeper

So I think that, now for me, the symbiotic relationship between we (customers) and the food industry has been clarified. Where before I wouldn’t have given as much thought to whether to pick something up or go out to eat, but now I give it much more thought. While I’m not under any delusion that any restaurant’s success or failure hinges solely on us, I do now see how our business definitely helps.

As I wrote earlier, I know people that have been affected by job loss. I think about them and about how it matters whether we do or don’t do business with them. I feel for them and for their respective situations.

I have heard a saying, “We are the they.” Put differently, I feel that we are our brother (or sister’s) keeper. Some are slightly better off financially or materially. Starting with “What Are You Doing Right Now To Help?” I have written in multiple posts about my family and my neighbors helping each other out: if someone goes out, we’ll ask if anybody needs something. Perhaps if someone has extra, we’ll see if someone can take it rather than throwing it away. I feel that this pandemic has painfully revealed our complicated, interwoven dependencies. As a result, it’s the right thing to do to mutually help each other out. If for no other reason, we never know when we’ll need help.

Similar to how I’ve mentioned my community helping each other, I would suggest that we do the same for our local markets and restaurants. For some business owners, they’re all in and depend heavily if not entirely on their small businesses for their livelihood. When I think about these businesses, I think about my neighbors. My family are only a few people, so I don’t know that, by ourselves, we can make much difference. However, we, collectively, can make a huge difference. Speaking for myself, I ask how I would feel, if someone that I knew whose small business went under and I did NOTHING to help?

As I worked on this piece, something else that came to mind is the intimate, personal touch that is possible with smaller businesses. It is easier to reach and get to know “the boss,” especially if it’s a small business of just a few people. If you have an issue, it can be easier to address because of that direct contact. If there’s something special that you need, they might know your history and be able to order it for you. It’s just a much more direct relationship.

As you deal with your own challenges, I would ask you to consider “small,” actionable ways of supporting your neighbors, especially those that own small businesses. I’m not saying that holding them up falls entirely on you. What I am saying is that we should give our small business owning neighbors an opportunity to do what they do: to feed us or provide us with our groceries. The chain stores are better protected. Let us look out for our small businesses the way that they look out for us. With many of us dealing with stay-at-home orders, we could all use more personal contact. So if we’re looking for personal contact, then let’s think about reaching out to our local small businesses.

THINK LOCAL. SUPPORT LOCAL.

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