Guest Essay: Nature’s Way Market, independent & local

A guest essay by South Berwick resident Amy Miller

I had a particularly nice day last week when I bought a pound of ground round and some almonds at the new independent market in the village of South Berwick.

First I bumped into my babysitter, who works the checkout line Wednesday afternoons. It was like running into a family member. My daughter stood there gazing in awe at her teenage mentor, while I wandered in search of cilantro.

Then I ran into a mother and boy from my son’s school and suddenly the two five-year-olds were hugging in the aisle. At the same time, the woman working the deli counter committed a new leather coat to an auction I am running for a mutual friend with cancer, while the store owner immediately agreed to donate wine to the auction.

The wine vendor just happened to be available in the “nail room,” named after the items sold there when this building housed a hardware store. He walked me through the wine selection, explaining that this one is organic while that one is simply made from organic grapes. At checkout, the cashier didn’t even double-check that the owner had donated the bottles.

These interactions are part of what keeps me returning to my village market. While 83 percent of Americans buy groceries at chain supermarkets, I feel blessed to have a locally owned market five minutes from my house. But while I love the social life in the neighborhood store, I love more knowing this enterprise is helping my community, economically and environmentally. And that to play a role in this, all I had to do was buy my lasagna dinner while socializing with neighbors.

Over the years I have learned what independents give to a community. The illusion of getting a bargain at a chain store is no match for the value of a local grocer.

In locally owned stores, the profits stay largely in the community. Studies have found that a third to a half the profits made by a local independent go right back to lawyers, bookkeepers, stationary stores, pharmacies, banks and other businesses in the region. With corporate ownership, half that much or less is reinvested locally, as chains have centralized banks, accountants and other services in far off headquarters. Similarly, locally owned stores give twice as much to local charities.

And while superstores truck products across the country, our village market buys what it can locally – White Heron Tea made in Rollinsford, Carpe Diem Coffee, made in North Berwick, and milk from Harris Farm in Dayton, Maine. This local purchasing helps local businesses, as well as the environment. Trucking accounts for nearly a fifth of greenhouse gases emitted in this country.

Furthermore, like many smaller retail operations, the locally owned market sits downtown in a pre-existing building that many people walk to. Not a postage stamp of green was converted to open the store.

According to “Big Box Swindle,” an eye-opening book by Maine resident Stacey Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self Reliance, Americans spend an average of 100 hours each year driving to shop. We are logging 95 billion miles a year more than we did in 1990, accounting for an additional 40 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, 200,000 tons of hydrocarbons and 150,000 tons of nitrogen oxide in the atmosphere.

The bad news is that superstores have gained an increasing share of our nation’s and in fact the world’s dollars. In part this is the responsibility of government policies favoring large corporations. The good news is more people each day recognize it is more satisfying to shop at local independent stores, and that it is also better for the economy. Organizations like Seacoast Buy Local, which has about 100 business members in the Seaocast, are helping local independents work together and educate the public. And local, state and federal governments are slowly changing policies so smaller retailers can survive without battling government favoritism.

After 10 years with many great stores opening and closing in town, often facing many empty storefronts, we in South Berwick were educated the hard way. This fall we celebrated the return of another small independent grocer. We look at this new business in town as “our market,” a comforting sign that our town has a heart and a soul.

–Amy Miller

This essay also ran in Foster’s Daily Democrat, April 13, 2008:
Community Dollars & Sense: Local grocer’s value goes beyond price