Locally made buttons from Pinstop. Click image to visit online store.
As many of you know, there are a great many skilled craftspeople in the area, as well as wealth of talented artists. Currently, there are very few specifically local outlets for them to showcase their work within the community. Ideally, there would be a physical retail space for these folks to sell their wares to locals, and any tourists who happen to come through this rapidly revitalizing town. But, until someone creates such a space, the next best option — and the most workable one — is a website.
And that’s just one way a “shop local” site could work. Alternately, it could be a central site that promotes locally owned retail businesses, provides information about local farmers, or serves as a central information source for shoppers about common-sense ways to support the local economy.
It’s a broad topic, obviously, but it’s one of many discussions I’d like to see happen locally.
Personally, I think a retail-leaning site could work quite well, particularly if the site itself wasn’t really trying to make money so much as provide a means for the community to showcase their products. Online craft sales are a proven market — just look at Etsy.com — and Spartanburg certainly has the talent. The picture I’m running with this post, in fact, comes from a local button-maker, Pinstop, who has an Etsy storefront.
But that might not be the best way of supporting the idea of buying locally in general, and not being much of a shopper myself, I have to admit that while I like the idea, I’m not at all certain on the best way of supporting this part of the community.
Your thoughts?
Steve Shanafelt
The idea has merit. I do think that nominal fees for using such a site would be a good idea though. It would help cover the cost of site maintenance, and would really be an inexpensive form of “site rent/advertising” for these business owners.
just a thought of course.
I would love to have one location where I could buy locally made goods. I love Etsy because it is easy to find unique, handmade goods at a variety of prices. I rarely go into any of the boutique stores in Spartanburg because well, I find them to be overpriced and they just all seem to carry the same sort of stuff. Look at Asheville (oh how I love that city)- you can go shopping in downtown and find a huge mix of different store carrying different types of goods. Here, it seems to me, a lot of small stores carrying expensive clothing and perhaps a few overprices accessories. But I have to admit, I don’t go into a lot of these stores so I might be missing out on great goods because of the idea I have of what they probably carry.
I agree Amy, an etsy type site would be great.