What does it mean to be local?

An example:  I've been using Tom's of Maine's toothpaste for years.  Tom's was started by Tom and Kate Chappell in Kennebunk, Maine in the 1970's.  The personal care products company grew and now employs 150 people. In 2006, Colgate-Palmolive purchased an 84% interest in the company for 100 million dollars.

Before we go cursing C-P for their wisdom in acquiring the quality and conscientiousness that Tom's represents, remember that William Colgate started making soap in NYC in 1806.  The Palmolive company began in the midwest ninety years later. Now the combined company has an annual revenue of 15.5 billion U.S. dollars made from international sales of soap, personal care products, and pet foods.  They employ 39,000 people.

Colgate-Palmolive's biggest competitor is another American-born company: Proctor and Gamble.  Since its Ohio start 150 years ago, P & G is a global dominator in its industry with annual sales of 82 billion and employs 129,000 people.

Do I love Tom's because they are from Maine?  Do I hate them because they sold out to a company from New York?  Should I hate the big guys solely because they are big?  Should I love the small guys just because they are small?  Because they hustle and suffer in a different way than than the big companies do?   When I patronize the small companies, isn't it with the hope that they will thrive and prosper and eventually, perhaps, be bought out for 100 million dollars?  Isn't that what we all secretly dream of for our small endeavors?  Am I cursing Colgate-Palmolive just because they are successful enough to  have sales in over 200 countries?  Am I cursing them because they didn't hire me and take me with them on their trip to global wealth?

The answers are unclear on some of these.

But what I know is that sometimes I need to purchase soap.

When she comes to town on Fridays during the summer and fall, I can buy bath soap from the lady who runs Black Hen Farm in Braintree.  She makes a really great product and sells it at my local farmer's market.  I am happy to buy it and feel that something I am going to wash myself with is worth the $4.50 per bar price.  Alas, I can't let my children use it because they will leave it melting in a bathtub of water and it will be gone in one bath; they only get water, which is after all, the universal solvent.

But back to the farmer's market.  No one sells liquid dish washing soap there, so sometimes I order a five gallon bucket of Castille soap from Vermont Soap.  Its a bit of an investment, but I can use it for dishes and general cleaning at the house, and handwashing and cleaning at the restaurant.    When I buy it, I don't need to shop for it again anytime soon, which is a pleasant feature of bulk purchasing.  Sometimes I purchase products from one of two environmentally friendly, smaller American companies that are carried by my favorite grocery store.  Sun and Earth is from Pennsylvania.  Are they local?  Are they small?  They are private and located in my country, which I think is good. Another Vermonter, is Seventh Generation, also still a private company with annual sales creeping into the hundreds of millions. That's more revenue than I take in by quite a bit, but I bet everyone there on the shores of Lake Champlain works hard, and their expenses have to be pretty high as well.

Laundry is a little more tricky.  I prefer dry soap to liquid soap that comes in those giant plastic bottles.  We do a lot of laundry.  I (perhaps wrongly) feel that I am being gypped by purchasing a fluid product, so I buy a powder without perfumes or colors that comes in a cardboard box that I can put in my recycling stream. Arm and Hammer owned by Church and Dwight Company of Princeton, New Jersey is often the winner of my imperfect grocery store struggle to unite my wallet and my ethics - as well as my washing machine which prefers the high-efficiency of liquid soap.  Church and Dwight is another world player.  However I did just purchase some more Vermont Soap, so maybe I'll use that for keeping my socks clean and fresh for a while.


A lot of talk, a lot of thinking, eventually some personal and house cleaning, but where have we gotten?

It seems that where I put my effort is in BUY LOCAL.  I'm not perfect at it, because sometimes things aren't available, are too hard to find or, are just too darn expensive for how I use them.  But if the price isn't too far above convential big-company products, and I don't have to spend $15 in gas money to get the item, I am willing to purchase from my local small entrepreneur.  In doing so, I support my neighbors and fellow citizens with their success, which helps them to have a little spare cash to help support me with mine.

Lets face it.  The CEO of Dwight and Church will not notice if I stop buying his product (although he might if I stopped, and you stopped, and he stopped, and she stopped...) So I don't concern myself with my impact on him.  Now that Kate and Tom are all set, they don't need my support so much either, so the next time a new toothpaste crosses my path from a less global company I may well shift my allegiance away from Tom's or Colgate or whomever they are.  That way I can invest in the next new thing and support local entrepreneurialism.

Whatever I do, I hope I stop and take a few minutes to think before I do it.