A couple of years ago a baker, a sockmaker and a… coffee maker started a grassroots organization in Santa Cruz in an effort to try to educate the public about the community benefits of shopping with independent, locally-owned businesses. The baker is Peter Beckmann, founder of Beckmann’s Bakery (try the asiago cheese sourdough!!), the sockmaker is Eric Gil from Sockshop and Shoe Co, and the coffee guy was Karl Heiman from Caffe Pergolesi.
Since then, the organization has grown to over 300 member businesses, joined together in solidarity in an effort to insulate our local business community against the national trend of homogenization and economic stagnation.
I’m happy to be a volunteer with Think Local First, and wanted to share a short video by Romney Dunbar that does a nice job of summarizing the purpose and effect of the organization:
iluminada design: