I found a blog post from the Editor of El Paso Times today. Apparently, Chris thinks that El Paso Downtown needs is a Cheese Cake Factory. A quick internet search on Chris and I was able to find out that he’s lived in El Paso for only 9 months (it is incredible what you can find on the internet, isn’t it?). We will give him the benefit of the doubt, but my guess is that he has not fallen for El Paso yet (hopefully he will).
The Time(s) of the Cheesy restaurants…
Filed under: Go Local Challenge — Tags: chain restaurants, cheesecake factory, local restaurants — Ares @ June 24, 2009 12:43 am
Going local experiences
Filed under: Go Local Challenge — Tags: benefits of going local, consumer behavior change, going local challenge — Ares @ June 21, 2009 1:31 am
Yesterday, I finished my pre-”Go Local” Challenge. I did the challenge before the proposed date during Independent’s week, but I did it to learn if it is feasible, and to gain enough experience in case someone needs help during the actual challenge. As far as I can tell, I succeeded to buy everything local. Here are some thoughts about it.
Local Store = Savings
Filed under: Go Local Challenge — Ares @ June 18, 2009 10:08 pm
I am the other guy Don mentioned in his post the other day. We took a “trip field” to JR Produce to get ready for the challenge. I don’t know about you but we consume A LOT of milk at home, and during our trip field I had a clear objective, buy and compare the price of milk.
The cost of going local
Filed under: Go Local Challenge — Ares @ June 15, 2009 10:31 am
Usually on Saturday and Sunday morning we go out for breakfast. My wife would not give up her favorite place (which is not a local business), so we reached an agreement. We would go and buy something for me, and then we would go to the place she likes. The problem was that I am so used to going to this place that when I thought about some other coffee place to go around our house I couldn’t think about any. I went to my computer, did a few searches, and … the only local coffee place that I could find in the West side is Kinley’s House. Oops, that is 7 miles away from home, and the non-local place is less than a mile away, or there is another one just 1.5 miles away.
Yes I succeeded going local, however I had to drive 5 more miles, back and forth, which meant 15-20 minutes driving, which obviously translates into pollution, and more ga$ consumed.
What is the real cost of going local in some cases? Is polluting more really more important than leaving more money in town? Don’t get me wrong, if I had to drive the same amount, or even a little bit more to go to a local place I would do it in a blink, but driving (polluting) that much… I don’t know.
Sunday I decided to break our tradition and stay at home.
Does anyone knows where to get a decent cup of coffee on the West side?
The Go Local Challenge
Filed under: Go Local Challenge — Ares @ June 10, 2009 4:18 pm
Join us during Independent's Week!
If you know what Homegrown El Paso is, you probably know that for every dollar you spend in a locally owned and independent business about 67 cents stay in El Paso, as opposed to 13 when you buy from a chain store. During our event, Independent’s Week, and in conjunction with AMIBA’s Independet’s Week with we are inviting people to take the Go Local Challenge.
What is the Homegrown Go Local Challenge?
Well, we are trying to get people from El Paso to buy everything locally for a week, and by everything we really mean everything, from groceries to tires. We are inviting people to do all of their day-to-day purchases on a locally owned business and help the economy of El Paso thrive along with its unique flavor. We know it is not going to be easy, and it may actually be way harder than we think, but lets give it a try.
We will have different people who are taking this challenge write about this; their experiences, stories and how much are they willing to go out of their way to accomplish this, and hopefully you will leave comments about this experience.
