Marc's Musings

Great article in today’s MorningSentinel about keeping down gas prices by shopping locally. In the article, one person is quoted:

“The whole point of this is to make people stop and think,” Edgerton said. “One Sunday evening, I needed one item that was $4. I live in Bowdoin, and if I drove down to Topsham it would have, for me, been equivalent to a tank of gas. Or I could go to our little local general store and pay $1 more for the item, and my gas would cost about 75 cents.”

Exactly!

When we did our “gas pay down.” the gas station owner said people were driving huge SUV’s from other communities to get the gas thinking they were getting a bargain. 25 cents off was a big deal, but not if you get 10-12 mpg and drive 20-30 miles one way to get it!

The kicker? When they found out the gas was gone, they drove away without filling up. Cost of entire 40 mile round trip at 10 mpg on that day? About $15.20.

It’ll be a huge change for us in Maine to start thinking less regionally and more locally. But it will be great for our communities!

One final quote from the article:

Chain stores return very little of what their stores take in back to the communities where they operate, she said. A recent study in Maine by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance found that only 14 cents of a dollar spent at a so-called “big box” store remains in the state’s economy.

In contrast, the study found that independent retailers spend more than half their revenue locally. They bank at local banks, hire local accountants, advertise in local media and require many other local services that chains do not.

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