It’s important to me to seek out local sustainable food, although of course I can’t always. I do participate in a CSA, though, which turns out to be a money saver anyway. Of course I don’t shop at pet stores that sell dogs and cats. But my best intentions often get foiled by hours. Seriously. I’d go to the local hardware store, only they practically keep bankers’ hours! I work all day and it just isn’t possible to always be off to go to somewhere local when I gotta make the money before I can spend it. That’s the one time I go to Wal-Mart - when everything else is closed. It’s disappointing.
90% of everything I buy comes from Wal*Mart and Amazon. I’m with Bricker.
CSA’s - now THERE is a great way to support your local farmers! I’m pretty fond of the Farmers’s Market, too, but the big ones are an hour away these days.
I don’t participate in a CSA, but I belong to the local natural foods co-op which gets its meat and produce from local farmers. I love shopping there. Usually there is even a little sign over the display telling you what farm it came from.
I also buy my milk from a fairly local farmer through a milk buying co-op. We can get cheese, cream, butter as well. For us the best part is that is is unpasturized and not homogenized. You can buy it at Whole Foods for half again as much, but we prefer to get it straight from the dairy itself.
We also have tons of farmers markets, including one that runs year round. We do our best to get whatever we can there, eggs, honey, fruits and vegetables, etc.
When we do go to the supermarket 99% of the time it’s a locally started chain (Raley’s, Bel Air, Nob Hill). So even though they are a west coast chain, at least we know who started them.
As a former retail employee, I try to shop at places that treat their employees well.
Hear, hear!
But what about the employees you don’t know about? Around here, Target is looked upon as a pretty good employer - but I’ve worked in a couple of their warehouses seasonally, and the last one was a house of horrors. Turns out, the phrase “Expect more. Pay less.” was the new warehouse manager motto… Brrr. I’ll never go to work for them again - and I had 4 great years of experiences with them previously.