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Friends
Apr22nd
Sip n Sample Commercial
Sip ‘n Sample is your ‘all access’ pass to some of the Twin Cities’ best independent restaurants. Take a guided tour & sip great wines paired with favorites from each restaurant’s menu, handpicked by your host at each event - the chef!
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Aug20th
The Internet is Killing Independent Bookstores
While the internet has provided a lot of great innovations and worthwhile stuff, it’s caused big problems for independent bookstores. An indie bookstore owner in Kansas City dramatizes the problem by burning books, while in Manhattan the Gotham Book Mart’s content has just been auctioned off by greedy landlords who put them out of business.
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Jul9th
Searching for Sexy Entrepreneurs ONLY PLEASE
If you think you have what it takes.. Then visit the website for more details. It’s time we start supporting each other….. Say it LOUD, wear it proud, baby!
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Jul5th
Starbucks killing independent coffee houses in California
But it’s consumers who are making the buying choice to go to this corporate giant. They could keep independents in business if they would choose to, but they are voting for Starbucks with their pocketbooks WHY?
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Jun13th
Do you Buy Independent?
BuyIndependent.org is doing field studies on customer/consumer loyality. We are wanting to know if people support their local boutiques regardless of the price. Or, would you rather search for the same or similar item for less at a larger retail chains. There is no wrong or right answer. We are only looking at spending habits. Thank you.
Jun7th
Bookstore Owner Burns His Books In Protest of Death of Thought
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) — Tom Wayne amassed thousands of books in a warehouse during the 10 years he has run his used book store, Prospero’s Books. So on Sunday, Wayne began burning his books protest what he sees as society’s diminishing support for the printed word. “This is the funeral pyre for thought in America today,” Wayne told spectators
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May24th
The Peace Fence
A fence that bisects two neighborhoods in Ashland, Oregon has become the temporary home for an art installation entitled “The Peace Fence.” In this article, we read a Q & A interview with the person who was inspired to use the fence as a canvas for displaying messages of peace and planetary well-being. Included are links to video & photos.
read more | digg story
May14th
Pizza for Pesos
I’m about four months behind on this story. When I heard the blurbs on the radio this January about a pizza chain that decided to start accepting Mexican Pesos, and the predictable outrage that followed, I blew the whole thing off as a Fox News-style story that served no purpose besides to stir people up. In fact that is still my opinion, but I think the story brings up some interesting issues besides immigration.
Pizza Patron founder Antonio Swad conceived this promotion as a way to get his customers, 65% of which are Latino, to spend some of their leftover Pesos from Christmas trips back home to Mexico. For all you European vacationers out there, imagine if you could spend those Euros back in the U.S., at the airport for example, instead of saving them ’til who knows when. It’s a simple and effective marketing gimmick, that’s all.
What was supposed to be a seasonal promotion to bolster weak winter sales has become a permanent feature at Pizza Patron. After all the hate mail and death threats died down, Swad found that sales have actually gone up, and it’s not because a mass of people are rushing to blow their Pesos. It’s because Latinos now see the restaurant as a friend to their community. It’s no different than putting up a bilingual sign; if you cater to your customers and their community, you’ll usually be rewarded with their business.
May11th
Target Beats U.S. in Recognition
On their corporate website Target claims a 96% recognition rate for their bulls eye logo. I don’t know their survey techniques, but we’ll assume it’s in the ballpark.
Now compare that to another number: According to an international survey of 18-24 year-olds in western countries, only 89% percent of American youths were able to point out their own country on a map.
I’ll just let those numbers speak for themselves.
Click here for more horrifying facts about our geographical illiteracy.
May9th
Rebuild or Reconsider?
Tornadoes happen. Having grown up in Oklahoma, I remember many tornadoes passing near or through our town, but I was always confident that they were something that happened to other people. I thought that it was just a case of bad luck, the finger of God smudging a thin line of destruction across someone else’s lawn. It has to be someone, though, and how do you move on from such devastatingly bad luck?
The residents of Greensburg, KS are facing a serious choice, rebuild or relocate? The town was leveled, 95% reduced to rubble, nary a standing structure to be seen except the Co-Op and the courthouse. So where do you find the heart to say that things will be okay?
The story of Greensburg is inspiring because it makes it clear that the hope for the town’s future doesn’t lie in FEMA or the Red Cross, but in the community’s residents. Mayor Lonnie McCollum is sleeping in a friend’s pickup truck, but he gives no Woe Is Me speeches, and he doesn’t slump his shoulders; he stands up and shares his vision of using this as an opportunity to rebuild a town that stronger and better than before. ”I don’t see this mess. I see what it’s going to be,” he said. ”Who wouldn’t want to live in a brand new town? Who wouldn’t want to have a business in a whole new town?”
In a time of gut-wrenching uncertainty, McCollum is doing just what a leader should do. He looks past the immediate catastrophe and sees a path forward. I think the community will rally behind him, I think that Greensburg will be okay.
Question for Discussion:
How is this different from the devastation of New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina and the community’s reaction to that catastrophe? Is it just the sizes of the towns that makes the difference, or is there something else going on here?