This past Saturday was Small Business Saturday, a promotion put on, at least partially, by American Express. Wait, is AmEx a small business? Oh well, if their heart is in the right place, I won’t quibble.
My wife and I love small businesses, and we try to spend our money in locally owned places as much as possible. Whether it’s grocery stores, bookstores, record stores, or clothing stores, we really try to support the small business owner. The question we always ask ourselves is “How would we feel if this place went out of business?” You can’t simply say you love locally owned businesses without patronizing them. They depend upon sales, not positive thoughts. So we decided to get out and show our support this past weekend.
I paid my first visit to Freemans Sporting Club (FSC), a menswear shop that started in New York and has recently set up shop here in San Francisco. In addition to the clothing store they also have a barber shop. Since I just recently got my hair cut I didn’t need to take advantage of the barber, but I may in the future.
I had only recently learned about FSC through another blog. I visited their website and was thinking about making a purchase when I saw that they actually have a San Francisco location. Nice. I like visiting clothing stores for two reasons: I like being able to see the clothes and try them on, and I enjoy talking to the people working there to get their opinions on stuff.
I went in and talked to a super nice guy named Joe. I was asking him questions about their suiting, which, if you are in the market for a really nice suit, I highly recommend. It’s spendy, but you can see the quality that goes into it. Great fabrics, excellent construction, cool styles.
However, I wasn’t suit shopping, I was looking for pants, and FSC has some nice choices. Another great thing about FSC is that much of their stuff is made within a few miles of their NYC location. They even list things by the number of miles away it was made. Now that’s local. Also, they were having a 20% off sale which makes it even easier to support the small business.
Anyway, here are the pants I had my eye on:
Winchester Trouser in olive
The fabric is a very soft cotton twill. It is densely woven and has a really nice feel to it. I had originally been looking at some other colors, such as khaki or rust, but the green is so rich and deep that I went with it. Of course there were many other things I was scoping out, but the real intention of this shopping excursion was for me to find something for my wife’s birthday, so I reined it in.
Next on our list was my wife’s favorite clothing store, Sunhee Moon. Sunhee is a local designer who actually went to high school with my wife’s sister. Over the years my wife has gotten a lot of really great things here, and it’s her “go-to” place for cool clothes.
I sort of cheated this year for a birthday gift, as I told my wife ahead of time that I was hoping she would pick out some things she liked and I would buy them for her. No surprises, but this way she would get exactly what she wanted. I try to be a supportive shopper when my wife is looking for clothes, and Sunhee made it easier by handing me a glass of champagne. My wife tried on a bunch of things, I gave honest opinions (some were heeded, some weren’t), and we ended up getting a few new things for her to wear this fall and winter. It was a fun experience and my wife was happy. Another successful visit.
Last on the list was a return visit to see the Taylor Stitch guys at The Common. It was my second time in the store, and like the first time, I walked out with a shirt and a tie. I’ve gotta say, I really love their stuff. The quality is superb, and they really couldn’t be nicer. This time I ended up with the Blue Box Check shirt, seen here:
Blue Box Check
The tie is this black wool one. I know, some people have a prohibition against all black clothing and accessories, but I like the deep color, and really, the black isn’t so severe:
Black herringbone tie
It looks really good with the shirt. Also, I recently purchased a charcoal herringbone sport coat (I will not say from where, sorry), and I think the black tie will look good with it.
I felt great about all the stuff we picked up, and I enjoyed having conversations with the people at these various shops. But it got me thinking that the support of small businesses shouldn’t be confined to one day out of the year. Shopping locally helps build up our communities, and it supports the concept of the entrepreneur. So keep that in mind as you shop. I guess you could say we are occupying Main Street when we buy local, and really, don’t we care more about what happens on Main Street than what happens on Wall Street?
Great post and great day! I had the best time, and not just because you bought me stuff. It’s true, part of the fun of shopping at these little places is establishing a connection with the people who make the products. Definitely creates a more interesting and rewarding exchange.
I was traveling all day that Saturday, but fortunately, managed to buy some gifts from our local sellers at the farmers’ market, our artist friends and a few other shops in town. That said, I still had to pick up big-box goods this week (electronics, sporting goods, a few kids clothes) and I ended up feeling somewhat deflated about Christmas. I wonder if it would be possible to commit an amount of time (a month? a year?) to only buying local goods. I think about what would happen if the washing machine died, or a faucet or something – could I stick to it? Could I afford it? And the bigger question, of course, would it matter? How do you inspire others to consider the non-market costs of the simple action of picking up that North Face fleece or those Ugg boots? I guess, though, as your post espouses, each and every sale at a local store really does matter. I’ll stick to it