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Technorati'Local' Goes Loco
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, our backyard, etc.
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 a few of the twists they've made in the straightforward definition of the term:
— HSBC, a sprawling, British-based financial conglomerate, has thousands of branch banks in localities across the globe (from Boston to Brazil), so it has labeled itself, "the world's local bank."
— 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."
— Hellmann's, a division of the Dutch-owned 
— 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 notes that the corporate pretenders are often boosted by economic development officials.
This "ya'll come" perversion of reality is supported by PR consultants for giant marketers. 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.
To connect with the "literal" world of local business, contact the Institute for Local Self-Reliance: www.ilsr.org.
22 Comments so far
Show AllCLIMATE CHANGE IS LOCAL...
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
The Starbucks execs are no doubt jumping up and down patting each other for being "the smartest guys in the room," but they're just copying the continual phony repackaging of both parties in Congress and presidential signing statements issued in such numbers that they selectively make a sham of the very laws themselves. This is quintessential Amurkana circa 2009: Big Lie piled up rotting on top of Big Lie to the skies while the right-wing rubes and left-wing dupes fall for every drop of snake oil that drips off the gutters.
Walmart is the most local company of all. It screws over customers, suppliers, employees, taxpayers and everybody else they come in contact with in just about every locality you can name.
We have been globally diffuse for a century.
Virtually every component of any product, has been subtly and seamlessly incorporated from a universal, far-flung, 'out-sourced' econo-network. This is due to technology and the efficiently evolving container industry.
I admire Mr. Hightower's outspokenness, but to live 'locally' is an elusive mirage. Remote commerce has been promoting itself for centuries.
Implosion is not realistic. The intention to reform is heartfelt, however.
Predictably, Big-Corp[se] is vulgarizing the 'Local' buzz-word. Their feedback is gibberish and offensive.
Apparently Big-Corp has given up on thinking critically.
They "talk the talk,' while ignoring the walk.
They are detached and deceptive, with a selfish agenda. They are just like the Big Bad Wolf, who insinuates himself into grandma's house, and treacherously masquerades in her nightgown.
Hmmm...
"These examples are closer to loco than they are to local!"
What it amounts to is US corporations carrying on their soulless tradition of squashing the soul out of commerce. They are concentrating power while pretending not to. They are deceiving the people. This is the distinguishing feature of USan commerce. The BIG LIE. This is the "American Way" that's "non-negotiable".
We need not tolerate it at all. That is, we as individuals can get behind the far-left "radical" movement to eliminate corporate personhood, disassemble the behemoths, and ultimately impose limits on asset ownership and enterprise size to ten man-powers. We won't lose anything we need.
Localism is the way. The people won't fall for the pathetic lies much longer. The "American Way" is a dead end, a massively failed experiment.
"a "buy local" campaign in Fresno, Calif., in which county authorities sold out the true locals"
Fresno is located in California's central valley and its officials are in cahoots with a highly centralized industrial agriculture complex. Local is not their middle name. Their agenda is monopoly control of world food markets. California is a state with two faces, fer sure.
The sad thing is that this kind of tactic works very well with the gullible, the idiots, the sheeple. Look for example, at the war of words regarding Iran: one day, the AEA says Iran has no nuclear capabilities, is not working on a nuclear program, blah blah blah. The US and its evil twin, Israel, wait a couple of days and bam! they come out with another 'report' that shows the complete opposite. Of course, the morons always believe the lies - no matter how obvious and poorly packaged - over the truth. This is no different.
Here in California "Certified Farmers Markets" have produce that is certified by inspection of county agricultural commissioners to be produced by the farmer that is selling the product directly to the farmers market customer.
Farmers can travel as far as is economically feasible, but seldom go over 100 miles and in small farmers markets usually under 30 miles. Most of this produce is harvested the day before market day, ripe on the tree or vine and truly "fresh".
By contrast "local" labels in grocery stores mean nothing. And "fresh" in the grocery store means something that has not been dried, frozen or cooked. Although it may have been held in cold storage for 90 days or more, oxidizing away vitamins from its unripe flesh every day.
There's a bumpersticker campaign going strong in Bend, OR called "Make Local Habit"
http://makelocalhabit.com/
I checked recently and apparently we don't have an ersatz Starbuck's open here yet. I'm keeping an eye out for it though. :)
"Wow, Humpty Dumpty would be proud of her! By that definition, "Made in China" could be local."
From a number of different viewpoints, China is local...
Keep the viewpoints, I'll buy what's really local.
I suggest the best way to preempt this nonsense is to help instigate a real Buy Independent & Local campaign before the idea is coopted locally. The American Independent Business Alliance is a national non-profit organization that exists to help people create such campaigns and broader pro-local alliances that Mr. Hightower referenced. See AMIBA.net (They also are fighting corporate personhood.)
Buy Local, eh? I live in a small, tourist town (Moab, UT.) And quite a few of our small, charming little shops have signs and stickers that say "Buy Local First." And yet, when I go in to shop, things for sale are from all over. So, the way I see it is: YOU FIRST! When the local businesses start buying local, I will, too!
Add Orlando, Florida to the "Buy Local" sell out. Their buy local campaign includes any and all comers, including Arby's Bright House, Radio Shack, Athlete's Foot and Cox Radio.
Yes, when I think local I immediately think "Arby's."
Thanks for this article. It's really informative, which is rare even here on CD. This is the kind of information and awareness we need - specific, useful and educational for us, the people. The pretenders must be exposed and it's good that people are starting to understand the value of "local".
Next step, stay away from all liars, the Democrats, the Republicans, Nader, etc. Vet everybody thoroughly. In this world of lies, the paramount question is who is telling the WHOLE truth. Because half truths are whole LIES.
Most or us are pretty dumb, as can be seen by how we keep voting for the same corrupt phonies year after year as our democracy dies--but shee-it! I hope we are not dum enough to fall for this!
Recently, I was making a trip to Spain to visit some Bolivian friends there. As I was waiting to depart in the airport in Jackson, Mississippi, I decided to try and buy some Mississippi souvenirs to take to my friends. There were T-shirts about Mississippi, product of Honduras - all kinds of magnets, plates, cups, teddy bears (all with Mississippi themes), all Made in China. Nothing for sale was made in Mississippi. C'est la vie.
Fortunately, the people who care about buying local won't fall for this charade. So go ahead, corporate monsters. Spend your advertising dollars needlessly. Works for me.
I wouldn't be so quick to underestimate the power of PR, Anne.
Just look at how the term "fat-free" became ubiquitous. It proved a boon to corporate food producers and advertisers while consumers became more obese.
Yes, indeed. If Starbucks can go so far as to package its stores as "local," not even displaying their name and logo, as this article says, we can't assume we're too savvy to know the difference. Now I know I'll have to do a little research to know for sure. Thanks, Jim Hightower and CD -- that knowledge WILL get around.
Unless you live in Columbia, no coffee is local. That's a metaphorical "local" columbia, not a literal one. I mean "unless you live in the tropics", essentially..... The fact that the product is disgorged out of a nozzle in East Pudsbury does not make it local to East Pudsburians. Stop buying coffee. Grow your own or look around for other things to drink. Get enough sleep. Get a job that keeps you awake by itself.
Good points. We need a database or website that tell us who really owns these stores - similar to the Organic Consumers Association revealing the small organic companies who've been bought out by Kraft, Dean Foods, etc.
You certainly have it right.