A makers market perfectly demonstrates the power of shopping local

Shoppers at the Englewood show had an opportunity to meet and support 19 area small-business owners.

Nineteen vendors, Stay Apparel Co. among them, participated in the inaugural Englewood Makers Market near Hershey on Dec. 4.

Three weeks later, I ran into one of those makers while I was popping up solo at Central Market in York.

He noted that he had spent a lot of money buying from fellow vendors at the Englewood show.

I suspect that was true for most of us: We enjoyed robust sales, a healthy portion of which derived from buying from one another.

Micro Main Street

The Englewood Makers Market isn’t alone in demonstrating the significantly positive economic impact that “shop local” efforts can have. We’ve been fortunate to participate in dozens of similar events in our five-plus years on the pop-up circuit.

But the Englewood show is the one that I know best because I worked closely with The Englewood staff to organize it.

We had a great venue (the 1861 Barn) and gracious hosts, talented makers, supportive shoppers and cooperative weather. Toss in classic holiday music and tasty food and beverage, and it was a setting worthy of a Hallmark movie.

Like one of those movies, it had an old-time feel, a sense of community that the retail shopping experience so sorely lacks today. Better than one of those movies, the experience we offered was real.

We were a micro Main Street, complete with free parking and local consumer dollars immediately circulating among local businesses.

Close to customers

Amazon is handy (I must confess to buying a few Made in USA Christmas gifts from the online behemoth), but efficiency isn’t heartwarming. Jeff Bezos has no direct connection to anything you buy from his company; he certainly can’t be familiar with all of the 12 million products Amazon offers.

By contrast, shoppers at the Englewood show had an opportunity to meet and support 19 area small-business owners who, of course, know chapter and verse about what they are selling. We are close to our products and our customers.

The vendors paid to participate. Those dollars went back into a modest rental fee for use of locally owned Englewood and ads in The Sun weekly newspaper in Hummelstown, which is owned by a local family.

We donated $100 to Shepherd’s Closet, a free clothing ministry at Trinity United Methodist Church in Hummelstown, in addition to what we collected with a sock drive.

My wife, Sara, while assisting me during the show, purchased from five of our fellow vendors. During the show, we shared an Englewood brisket sandwich. After it, Sara had a glass of wine, and I had a couple of beers at Englewood’s main bar. Another vendor couple joined us, as did a friend of ours.

The Englewood show was a significant part of an overall successful holiday selling season for Stay that took place mostly at shows in Hershey, Harrisburg, Carlisle, Lancaster and York. On the strength of those sales, I am restocking a number of tees, all made in the USA and printed in Lancaster, as we take up the challenges and opportunities of a new year.

And so the “shop local” virtuous circle continues.