Local Shopping Challenge: Supporting shuttered local businesses

In the past week or two, I've been seeing lots of messages about how to support local businesses during the Covid outbreak. A local business organization, Main Street Highland Park, went so far as to send out a list of all the local businesses operating within Highland Park, with information about their status (closed, limited operation, open) and how to contact them. The message urged residents to continue supporting local businesses by buying gift cards (which, as my Planet Money podcast explained last week, is basically like giving them an interest-free loan) or placing online and phone orders with companies that are able to fulfill them.

But, as it turns out, that's not so easy to do. When I looked at the list of businesses, many of them didn't even have websites. Of the ones that did, most didn't have any products for sale online or any information about how to purchase gift cards. And some are businesses we wouldn't even be able to redeem a gift card for if we were to buy one, like real estate agents or auto body shops. (We will certainly take our car to a local shop if it's damaged, but damaging it on purpose just to give them the business seems like going too far.)

So I decided to set myself a local shopping challenge for this week. The goal was simple: to buy something, anything, from as many different local businesses as I could. I wouldn't worry about the stores that are still operating normally (grocery stores, drugstores, gas stations), but would focus on those that have either closed their doors or severely curtailed their business as a result of the pandemic. And, since I also wanted my purchases to be ecofrugal, I would only buy things that either I or someone else could actually use. But within those parameters, anything was allowed. I wouldn't even worry about the prices.

I started with one local business that Brian and I have tried to give some business to in the past: The Moonladies, a joint venture operated by two sisters as Through the Moongate (gifts and knickknacks) and Over the Moon Toys. We'd actually made a point of stopping by there a couple of weeks ago, before the shutdown of all nonessential businesses, and buying ourselves a small board game called Joe Name It. Because the game is so simple, it ended up making a good test of whether it's possible to play a board game over Skype, with one physical copy of the game and everyone else just looking on over the interwebs. (Answer: It works sort of okay.) But we wanted to throw them some more business if we can.

So I started browsing through their game collection and found that they had several jigsaw puzzles, which I recalled had been a nice diversion for us during a period of repeated power outages. However, that wasn't really something we needed right now, with the power and Internet still working, and it would be a bit hard to work on one now anyway, with our two cats sure to jump up on the table and "help" all the time. So instead, I chose a bird-themed puzzle that I thought my sister's family would enjoy and sent it to them as a gift. She sent me back an email yesterday saying, "This was such a fun idea! Thank you!" and including a picture of their first day's progress.

Expanding this idea, I decided to send a present to my aunt and uncle in New York City as well. Living at Ground Zero of the Covid crisis in the US as they are, I figured they could use a little something to lift their spirits. So I selected a small box of Gianduja chocolates (a chocolate-hazelnut confection sort of like Nutella fudge) from our local chocolatier, Birnn, and sent it off to them. They received it today and sent back the message, "Delicious, and I'm not a big sweets fan. Thanks so much." So, once again, that killed two birds with one stone by supporting a local business and sending a little comfort to socially distanced relatives.

Unfortunately, those were the only stores on the list that seemed to be offering any products for sale online. But we found a way to throw a little business to some other local establishments nonetheless. For instance, on Friday, we stopped by the local Dunkin Donuts, which is still open for takeout orders (and has been sending me frequent emails to remind me of this fact). Since it was the last Friday of their "free doughnut day" promotion, which included a free doughnut with the purchase of any beverage, I got an iced coffee (it being a warm day) and a vanilla frosted doughnut, which we ate that evening for dessert. As Brian observed, maybe doughnuts just taste a lot better when you only eat one or two of them a year, but this one certainly seemed worth the calories. Sadly, I had to get my coffee in a disposable cup (no reusable cups during the health crisis), but at least it was recyclable.

Then, on our way home, we passed by Ellin Kon, a small Greek grocery that's still open (as a food store, it's allowed to keep operating) but keeping limited, unpredictable hours. This reminded me that we actually needed some olives for the upcoming Seder, since we follow the modern custom of adding an olive to our Seder plate to represent the hope for peace in Israel. (I partly chose to adopt this custom because Brian likes olives and seldom gets to eat them, so it's a treat for him as well.) So I popped in and picked up a small jar of green olives stuffed with garlic, which (since garlic is reputed to be good for you) can also represent the hope for a quick end to the pandemic. The helpful salesclerk even sprayed my hands with sanitizer afterward.

That's four local businesses, and I have a plan to add one more to the list by ordering takeout food tonight from one of our local restaurants. Our favorite one, Pad Thai, appears to be still open for takeout orders (as far as I can tell, they don't do delivery), so we'll try there first; if that doesn't work, maybe we'll take the opportunity to try the new Chinese place, Chef Tan. We haven't gone there before because reviews generally said the food was good but the service was terrible, so perhaps takeout would be the ideal way to experience it.