By Jim Hightower
In Through the Looking Glass, Humpty Dumpty declared, "When I use a word, it means what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less."
Mr. Dumpty would have loved living in our era of corporate-speak, when even a plain word of obvious meaning can be dumped down the semantical rabbit hole to be swirled and twirled by marketing meisters.
Then - sproing! - out it pops, looking like the same word, but now burdened with a convoluted connotation that is the very opposite of what the word appears to mean.
This corporatization of language is presently being applied to the common term, "local" - as in: right here, in the immediate vicinity, this neck of the woods, hereabouts.
In the past few years, "local" has become an important commercial term, as small businesses have proudly attached it to their products, services and presence in the marketplace. The term differentiates them from the gigantism, plasticity, aloofness and frequent abusiveness of faraway, big-box, chain operations. The message conveyed by these local enterprises is that "we are your neighbors, you know us and we know you, we share a community bond beyond just taking your money."
"Local" is a growing movement in American commerce. Some 30,000 small businesses have organized themselves into "local business alliances" in more than 130 cities. The movement is phenomenally popular with consumers, who like the personality and uniqueness of homegrown enterprises and prefer to buy from people who keep consumer dollars moving through the local economy.
As a result of the movement's financial success, many more businesses are joining the local push. For example, such down-home outfits as Barnes & Noble, CVS, Frito Lay, HSBC, Starbucks, Unilever and Wal-Mart are trying to get in on the action.
Believe it or not, these giants are using TV ads and other promotional outlets to hawk their centralized, standardized and globalized brands as "local." Here are two of the twists they've made in the straightforward definition of the term:
- Barnes & Noble, the biggest bookseller in the world, is trying to scale its image down to mom-and-pop level by proclaiming that "all book-selling is local."
- Starbucks, the ubiquitous 16,000-store caffeine purveyor, has been losing market share to cool, local shops that are the opposite of cookie-cutter chain stores, so the giant is opening a series of pretend-funky shops designed by corporate headquarters to present a "local vibe" - a consumer hoax that includes no display at all of the Starbucks name and logo.
These examples are closer to loco than they are to local!
Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance recently reported on a "buy local" campaign in Fresno, Calif., in which county authorities sold out the true locals (as well as the English language) by proclaiming, "Just so you know, buying local means any store in your community: mom-and-pop stores, national chains, big-box stores - you name it."
As rationalized by Michelle Barry, an executive of the Hartman Group: "There is a belief that you can only be local if you are a small and authentic brand. This isn't necessarily true; big brands can use the notion of local to their advantage as well. ... It's a different way of thinking about local that is not quite as literal."
Wow, Humpty Dumpty would be proud of her! By that definition, "Made in China" could be local.
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, columnist and author.
To connect with the "literal" world of local business, contact the Capital Area Independent Business Alliance, a coalition of central Illinois independent businesses at www.ibuyspi.com or via email info@ibuyspi.com. Nationally contact the Institute for Local Self-Reliance: www.ilsr.org or the American Independent Business Alliance at www.amiba.net.
