Man Shops Local As Long As It’s Extremely Convenient
By Scott Slute
Culture - As Covid-related closures continue to impact our economy, many small businesses continue to suffer. And because of this, 33 year old Tyler Holmes says it’s very important to him that he shops local. Unless of course it involves going any more than 7 minutes from his apartment.
“It just breaks my heart to see these businesses struggle. They’ve been through so much these past two years,” Tyler tells us, “That’s why whenever I need something I always check if one store in my neighbourhood has it before ordering off Amazon.”
Tyler explains that even though he’s never actually bought something from the boutique furniture store at the end of his street, he’s thought about buying from them a lot.
“I mean like sometimes they do have what I’m looking for but it’s always really expensive. I can find the same thing at Structube for a third of the price,” he claims, “But I never go to Starbucks. I only get coffee from the shop at the bottom of my condo building.”
Although he could travel to a different small business to find what he needs, Tyler explains he’s concerned about the impacts that might have.
“Sure, there might be a small business across town that has what I’m looking for. But that would involve driving my car there, and think about what that’s doing to the environment! I’m concerned about the future of our planet, so unfortunately that means sometimes I have to order what I need from a guy who launches himself into space.”
And even more affected by current economic strifes have been POC-owned businesses, which Tyler says he would definitely support if he was easily presented with the opportunity to do so.
“You better believe that if there was a black-owned restaurant within 400 square metres of my home I would totally go there all the time,” Tyler says somewhat convincingly, “I heard there’s this really great Indigenous-owned cafe in Kensington Market. I live in Riverside so that’s like, really far for me. But good for them!”
Tyler tells us he’s excited to check out and support a new store down the street from him that sells boutique socks, having recently taken over the space that once housed a convince store owned by a Korean family for 35 years.
Scott Slute is the Editor in Chief at The Toronto Harold