We can stop the recession. But will we ?
Whatever happened to the slogan 'Buy Irish', Guaranteed Irish and do we ever stop to think how our buys in New York,Paris or UK might affect our own local economy? The same applies to trips to the North for cheap goods while our home towns and villages suffer from lack of customers. We are all in this together and the truth of that only sinks in when you find a scarcity of customers for what you produce yourself. But all this comes down to good old Irish begrudgery with a hint of greed driven by the illusion of a bargain.We are travelling to the UK in droves to buy machinery and cars with no taught to service and backup but yet expect it.
A good example would be the humble spud. Growing spuds is a risky occupation, but Irish spuds taste far better than most of the watery imports that can taste a bit like soap. I just prefer home-grown potatoes and cannot understand why anyone would bother with the imported products from Cyprus, Italy, Israel and elsewhere.
Of course, some unfortunate people only know the taste of oven-ready chips. They should try eating the real thing. But the whole business of shopping locally goes beyond buying just Irish products. It's about the impact on the local economy if we make most of our purchases in our home towns. Just think, in a town of say 1,500 homes, each household spends probably €5,000 or more a year on groceries and other household goods. If every homeowner switched to spending even €1,000 a year of their annual budget in local shops then that would bring €1.5m to the local economy. More jobs would be created and you, and I, would be better off as a result.
Too few of us shop for fresh vegetables in local markets. The people who struggle to make a living growing organic produce and selling it, farm fresh, each week need our custom. Maybe the extra nutritional benefits of organic produce are, as yet, unproven, but the fresh article tastes so much better. And at least it hasn't been sprayed with some concoction to prolong its shelf life.
As I write this, there is snow falling, and all over Ireland farmers with woodland are producing logs and wood chip for sale. Why buy imported oil or coal when you can keep the money here in Ireland and help your neighbour out at the same time by buying his firewood?
There are just so many ways we can help our neighbours and ourselves by shopping close to home, buying fresh food when in season and, wherever possible, buying Irish.
Without our local butchers, drapers, groceries and hardware stores, our towns would be empty, soulless places. Take away the local shops and the only remaining option is to drive miles to the nearest shopping centre, often located out of town and with a huge barren car park. Popping in to the local shop can be fun and the chat and banter has to be worth the few bob extra that it might cost.
