My favorite children clothes store https://www.maammekauppa.fi/ is shutting down (I’m not affiliated, but where will I buy those pretty and durable shirts now?), reason - people are not buying local, one of two local manufacturers who was their suppliers went down last fall for the same reason. This fanatically local and very personal shop just didn’t make it. And as small local business owner, I see my reflection in their shutdown.
This is just sad.
And they are right. I’m (affiliated here) trying to sell local brewing yeast for a year now, and almost nobody buys it. I offered gardening chemicals to supermarket networks to be marketed as local - they say there is no demand, they end up with unsold surplus of this (and they know their numbers). I want to believe and praise “buy European” story, but right now the opposite is happening.
In the end, you can’t live off an ideology. You can use it as a promotion, or as added value to a product, but eventually people need to buy your product either because it is better or cheaper than the competition. Sure there are individuals who will keep supporting the idea, but to be viable, you need more than that.
I agree with you that this is sad, but i left the retail business 15 years ago exactly because of this
These guys had more than that. I shopped there about once a year, the shirts did last - on children, this is unusual - and they just look awesome, he wears those to competition music concerts, just kid’s t-shirts, and they look totally appropriately stylish.
I’m not even talking here about why my stuff in unique and best lol.